Abstract
In this work, the feasibility of negative-ion atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI) and atmospheric pressure photoionisation (APPI) for ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) determination of fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs), fluorinated octanesulfonamides (FOSAs) and fluorinated octanesulfonamido-ethanols (FOSEs) was evaluated. The study of the effect of mobile phase composition on the atmospheric pressure ionisation of these compounds indicated that methanol/water mixtures provided the best responses in APCI, while acetonitrile/water with a post-column addition of toluene as dopant was the most appropriated mixture in APPI. Under the optimal working conditions, most of the target compounds produced the ion [M–H]− as base peak, although in-source collision-induced dissociation fragment ions in APCI and APPI and superoxide adduct ions [M+O2]−• in APPI were also present. These ions proved to be more useful as precursor ions for MS/MS determination than the adduct ions generated in electrospray. Although the UHPLC-APCI-MS/MS method allowed the determination of these semi-volatile compounds at low concentration levels, the analysis by UHPLC-APPI-MS/MS provided the lowest limits of detection and it was applied to the analysis of water samples in combination with solid-phase extraction. Quality parameters demonstrated the good performance of the proposed method, providing low method limits of detection (0.3–6 ng L−1), good precision (RSD % < 5%) and an accurate quantification (relative error % < 14%). Among the river water samples analysed by the developed method, 4:2 FTOH and N-EtFOSA were determined at 30 and 780 ng L−1, respectively.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Fromme H, Tittlemier SA, Völkel W, Wilhelm M, Twardella D. Perfluorinated compounds—exposure assessment for the general population in western countries. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2009;212:239–70.
Hekster FM, Laane RWPM, de Voogt P. Environmental and toxicity effects of perfluoroalkylated substances. Rev Environ Contam Toxicol. 2003;179:99–121.
Lehmer H-S. Synthesis of environmentally relevant fluorinated surfactants—a review. Chemosphere. 2005;58:1471–96.
Buck RC, Franklin J, Berger U, Conder JM, Cousins IT, de Voogt P, et al. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the environment: terminology, classification, and origins. Integr Environ Assess Manag. 2011;7:513–41.
Kissa E. Fluorinated surfactants and repellents. 2nd ed. New York: Marcel Dekker; 2001.
Council Decision (EU) 2015/633 of 20 April 2015 on the submission, on behalf of the European Union, of a proposal for the listing of additional chemicals in Annex A to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Official Journal of the European Union. 2015;L 104:14–15.
Decision SC-4/17 of 4–8 May 2009 of Listing of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride. United Nation Environment Programme. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. UNEP/POPS/COP.4/38:66-9.
Jahnke A, Ahrens L, Ebinghaus R, Berger U, Barber JL, Temme C. An improved method for the analysis of volatile polyfluorinated alkyl substances in environmental air samples. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2007;387:965–75.
Wu Y, Chang VW-C. Development of analysis of volatile polyfluorinated alkyl substances in indoor air using thermal desorption-gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. J Chromatogr A. 2012;1238:114–20.
Kim S-K, Shoeib M, Kim K-S, Park J-E. Indoor and outdoor poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in Korea determined by passive air sampler. Environ Pollut. 2012;162:144–50.
Kuklenyik Z, Needham LL, Calafat AM. Measurement of 18 perfluorinated organic acids and amides in human serum using on-line solid-phase extraction. Anal Chem. 2005;77:6085–91.
Gremmel C, Frömel T, Knepper TP. Systematic determination of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in outdoor jackets. Chemosphere. 2016;160:173–80.
Lacina O, Hradkova P, Pulkrabova J, Hajslova J. Simple, high throughput ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry trace analysis of perfluorinated alkylated substances in food of animal origin: milk and fish. J Chromatogr A. 2011;1218:4312–21.
Martin JW, Muir DCG, Moody CA, Ellis DA, Kwan WC, Solomon KR, et al. Collection of airborne fluorinated organics and analysis by gas chromatography/chemical ionization mass spectrometry. Anal Chem. 2002;74:584–90.
Szostek B, Prickett KB. Determination of 8:2 fluorotelomer alcohol in animal plasma and tissues by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. J Chromatogr B. 2004;813:313–21.
Szostek B, Prickett KB, Buck RC. Determination of fluorotelomer alcohols by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry in water. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2006;20:2837–44.
Chu S, Letcher RJ. Analysis of fluorotelomer alcohols and perfluorinated sulfonamiddes in biotic samples by lquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure photoionization mass spectrometry. J Chromatogr A. 2008;1215:92–9.
Krusic PJ, Marchione AA, Davidson F, Kaiser MA, Kao C-PC, Richardson RE, et al. Vapor pressure and intramolecular hydrogen bonding in fluorotelomer alcohols. J Phys Chem A. 2005;109:6232–41.
Portolés T, Rosales LE, Sancho JV, Santos FJ, Moyano E. Gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization for fluorotelomer alcohols and perfluorinated sulfonamides determination. J Chromatogr A. 2015;1413:107–16.
Berger U, Langlois I, Oehme M, Kallenborn R. Comparison of three types of mass spectrometer for high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of perfluoroalkylated substances and fluorotelomer alcohols. Eur J Mass Spectrom. 2004;10:579–88.
Chai Y, Hu N, Pan Y. Kinetic and thermodynamic control of protonation in atmospheric pressure chemical ionization. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom. 2013;24:1097–101.
Arvaniti OS, Asimakopoulos AG, Dasenaki ME, Ventouri EI, Stasinakis AS, Thomaidis NS. Simultaneous determination of eighteen perfluorinated compounds in dissolved and particulate phases of wastewater, and in sewage sludge by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Anal Methods. 2014;6:1341–9.
González-Barreiro C, Martínez-Carballo E, Sitka A, Scharf S, Gans O. Method optimization for determination of selected perfluorinated alkylated substances in water samples. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2006;386:2123–32.
Boulanger B, Vargo J, Schnoor JL, Hornbuckle KC. Detection of perfluorooctane surfactants in great lakes water. Environ Sci Technol. 2004;38:4064–70.
Bach C, Boiteux V, Hemard J, Colin A, Rosin C, Munoz JF, et al. Simultaneous determination of perfluoroalkyl iodides, perfluoroalkane sulfonamides, fluorotelomer alcohols, fluorotelomer iodides and fluorotelomer acrylates and methacrylates in water and sediments using solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. J Chromatogr A. 2016;1448:98–106.
Funding
The authors acknowledge the financial support received from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the project CTQ2015-63968-C2-1-P and also from the Generalitat of Catalonia under the project 2018-SGR-310. Juan F. Ayala-Cabrera also thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports for the PhD FPU fellowship and the Water Research Institute (IdRA) from University of Barcelona for the PhD research financial assistance.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(PDF 575 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ayala-Cabrera, J.F., Javier Santos, F. & Moyano, E. Negative-ion atmospheric pressure ionisation of semi-volatile fluorinated compounds for ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis. Anal Bioanal Chem 410, 4913–4924 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-018-1138-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-018-1138-z