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Development of liquid chromatography atmospheric pressure chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry for analysis of halogenated flame retardants in wastewater

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Abstract

Until recently, atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) has typically been used for the determination of non-polar halogenated flame retardants (HFRs) by liquid chromatography (LC) tandem mass spectrometry. In this study, we demonstrated the feasibility of utilizing liquid chromatography atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) tandem mass spectrometry (LC-APCI-MS/MS) for analysis of 38 HFRs. This developed method offered three advantages: simplicity, rapidity, and high sensitivity. Compared with APPI, APCI does not require a UV lamp and a dopant reagent to assist atmospheric pressure ionization. All the isomers and the isobaric compounds were well resolved within 14-min LC separation time. Excellent instrument detection limits (6.1 pg on average with 2.0 μL injection) were observed. The APCI mechanism was also investigated. The method developed has been applied to the screening of wastewater samples for screening purpose, with concentrations determined by LC-APCI-MS/MS agreeing with data obtained via gas chromatography high resolution mass spectrometry.

LC-APCI-MS/MS for analysis of halogenated flame reterdants

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Wellington Laboratories for providing the flame retardant standards and Restek for supplying LC columns. We acknowledge the assistance of Terry Kolic and Chunyan Hao (Ontario Ministry of the Environment). We also thank Hesham Ghobarah (Applied Biosystem) for his helpful discussions and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada

    Simon Ningsun Zhou, Li Shen & Ian D. Brindle

  2. Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Laboratory Services Branch, Toronto, ON, M9P 3V6, Canada

    Simon Ningsun Zhou, Eric J. Reiner, Li Shen, Patrick Crozier & Karen MacPherson

  3. Environment Canada, National Water Research Institute, Burlington, ON, L7R 4A6, Canada

    Chris Marvin

  4. Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Environmental Monitoring and Reporting Branch, Toronto, ON, M9P 3V6, Canada

    Paul Helm

  5. Wellington Laboratories, Guelph, ON, N1G 3M5, Canada

    Nicole Riddell

  6. Restek Corporation, Bellefonte, PA, 16823, USA

    Frank Dorman & Michelle Misselwitz

  7. Juniata College Department of Chemistry, Huntingdon, PA, 16652, USA

    Frank Dorman

Authors
  1. Simon Ningsun Zhou
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  2. Eric J. Reiner
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  3. Chris Marvin
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  4. Paul Helm
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  5. Nicole Riddell
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  6. Frank Dorman
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  7. Michelle Misselwitz
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  8. Li Shen
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  9. Patrick Crozier
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  10. Karen MacPherson
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  11. Ian D. Brindle
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Correspondence to Simon Ningsun Zhou.

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Zhou, S.N., Reiner, E.J., Marvin, C. et al. Development of liquid chromatography atmospheric pressure chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry for analysis of halogenated flame retardants in wastewater. Anal Bioanal Chem 396, 1311–1320 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-009-3279-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-009-3279-6

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