Rapid target analysis of microcontaminants in water by on-line single-short-column liquid chromatography combined with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization ion-trap mass spectrometry

The applicability of trace enrichment and separation of microcontaminants on a single 10X2 mm I.D. high-pressure-packed liquid chromatography (LC) column, combined on-line with an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI)-ion-trap tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS) instrument was studied for the target analysis of herbicides in river water. The total analysis time was 15-20 min. With the on-line short-column LC-MS-MS method, detection limits of 0.1-1 mu g/l can be achieved using only 4 ml of river water. However, the results obtained for a mixture of six triazines were considerably better than those for a mixture of eight phenylureas. An attempt is made to explain this difference on the basis of various processes that occur within the ion trap and the measurement procedure itself. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.