LC-MS FOR TOXICOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL-ANALYSIS - RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

The coupling of liquid chromatography and electrophoretic separation techniques with mass spectrometry has attracted great interest in almost all areas of analytical chemistry, because it holds many promises. Some interface types are used in routine analysis already, although GC-MS is often more sensitive and more reliable. The foremost benefit of using LC-MS is that the identification and determination of substances is possible, which were intractable with mass spectrometry, such as sulfonates, glucuronides, salts and metal organic species. New insights in metabolism of hazardous materials and new strategies for risk assessment are possible. In this report, an overview over the state of the art in the interface technique and some recent developments is given and, with a few selected examples (e.g detection of highly polar herbicides, metabolic analysis and speciation), the strength of LC-MS in environmental analysis shall be highlighted.