Erratum to: Anal Bioanal Chem

DOI: 10.1007/s00216-016-9435-x

In the original version of this article, one of the chromatographic peaks found in NL NOM extracts was identified as iodoethene. However, the molecular structure proposed was not correct. Following Professor Albert T. Lebedev’s suggestion, this peak may correspond to ethyl β-iodopropionate (C5IO2H9). The authors completely agree with this suggestion, based on the following facts:

  • The retention time for iodoethene should be shorter than that observed for ethyl iodoacetate (tR = 8.07). On the other hand, ethyl β-iodopropionate should be retained in the column longer as compared to ethyl iodoacetate.

  • The other ions in the mass spectrum, i.e., 87.04409 (C4H7O2, 0.4 ppm), 154.93519 (C2H4I, -0.2 ppm), and 140.91956 (CH2I, 0.04 ppm) also support the structural assignment as ethyl β-iodopropionate.

The authors would like to highlight that this peak misidentification is attributed only to the manual interpretation of the HRMS data and not to the GC-Orbitrap MS instrument performance.

Figure 3b has been also changed accordingly, and ethyl β-iodopropionate should read throughout the text instead of iodoethene.

Fig. 3
figure 1

Fragment rationalization for mass spectrum of the peak appearing at tR = 8.14 min in the chloraminated NL NOM extract

Full size image

In order to confirm that this compound was a disinfection byproduct and not formed during an extraction process based on ethyl acetate, an additional blank of the chloramination process with purified water spiked with 500 ppb of bromide and 50 ppb of iodide (as KBr and KI, respectively) was performed. Both, ethyl iodoacetate and ethyl β-iodopropionate were found in this blank extract; however, the peak areas in chloraminated and chlorinated extracts were comparatively much higher than in the blank (10 times and 5 times, respectively). Therefore, it was concluded that these compounds also were generated during the disinfection process.