Characterization of triazine herbicides by electrospray and tandem mass spectrometry

Electrospray mass spectrometry has aided the structural characterization of triazine herbicides standards. Possible fragmentation routes were first obtained by controlled collision-activated dissociation (CAD) initiated by cone voltage fragmentation. Low energy CAD MS-MS analyses of the protonated molecules [M+H](+) confirmed the characteristic fingerprint patterns obtained by cone voltage fragmentation for all investigated triazine herbicides and also permitted differentiation of isomeric triazines. MS-MS analyses of selected intermediate fragments provided additional structural data, and established the fragmentation routes of their [M+K](+) precursors. Electrospray MS has been proven to be a specific and very sensitive method for the detection and characterization of herbicides.