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Investigating the presence of pesticide transformation products in water by using liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry with different mass analyzers
Author(s) -
Hernández Félix,
Ibáñez María,
Pozo Óscar J.,
Sancho Juan V.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9888
pISSN - 1076-5174
DOI - 10.1002/jms.1279
Subject(s) - chemistry , chromatography , detection limit , mass spectrometry , surface water , pesticide , triple quadrupole mass spectrometer , solid phase extraction , liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry , extraction (chemistry) , tandem mass spectrometry , sample preparation , resolution (logic) , environmental chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , selected reaction monitoring , environmental science , environmental engineering , computer science , agronomy , biology , artificial intelligence
Many pesticide transformation products (TPs) can reach environmental waters as a consequence of their normally having a higher polarity than their parent pesticides. This makes the development of analytical methodology for reliable identification and subsequent quantification at the sub‐microgram per liter levels necessary, as required under current legislation. In this paper we report the photodegradation of several pesticides frequently detected in environmental waters from the Spanish Mediterranean region using the high‐resolution and exact‐mass capabilities of hybrid quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (QTOF MS) hyphenated to liquid chromatography (LC). Once the main photodegradation/hydrolysis products formed in aqueous media were identified, analytical methodology for their simultaneous quantification and reliable identification in real water samples was developed using on‐line solid‐phase extraction (SPE)‐LC‐tandem MS with a triple‐quadrupole (QqQ) analyzer. The methodology was validated in both ground and surface water samples spiked at the limit of quantification (LOQ) and 10 × LOQ levels, i.e. 50 and 500 ng/l, obtaining satisfactory recoveries and precision for all compounds. Subsequent analysis of ground and surface water samples resulted in the detection of a number of TPs higher than parent pesticides. Additionally, several soil‐interstitial water samples collected from the unsaturated zone were analyzed to explore the degradation/transformation of some pesticides in the field using experimental plots equipped with lisimeters. Several TPs were found in these samples, with most of them having also been detected in ground and surface water from the same area. This paper illustrates the extraordinary potential of LC‐MS(/MS) with QTOF and QqQ analyzers for qualitative/structural and quantitative analysis, respectively, offering analytical chemists one of the most powerful tools available at present to investigate the presence of pesticide TPs in water. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.