Speciation of organo-tin compounds using liquid chromatography atmospheric pressure ionisation mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry as complementary techniques

A liquid chromatographic method for the determination of dibutyltin (DBT), tributyltin (TBT), diphenyltin (DPhT) and triphenyltin (TPhT) in sediments has been developed, which is compatible with both atmospheric pressure ionisation (API) mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) mass spectrometry. As a result of this development both techniques may be used for the complementary speciation of organo-tin compounds. The chromatographic system comprises of a Kromasil-100 5 mu m C-18,, (150X2.1 mm) column and a mobile phase of 0.05% triethylamine in acetonitrile-acetic acid-water (65:10:25), at a how-rate of 0.2 mi min(-1). The optimisation of the LC-API-MS conditions is discussed, together with the analysis of a real sediment sample for DBT and TBT using selected ion monitoring (SIM). Crown Copyright (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.