Analysis of Haloacetonitriles in Tap Water Using Triple Quadrupole LC/MS/MS

User Benefits

- Three main components of haloacetonitriles can be measured simultaneously in an analysis time of only 13 minutes. - Tap water samples can be measured without sample preparation. - It is possible to change to APCI from ESI simply by exchanging probes.

Introduction

Haloacetonitriles in tap water are byproducts of the reaction of humic substances, algae, and amino acids with free carbon dioxide during chlorine disinfection treatment, and are known as one of the disinfection byproducts represented by trihalomethane and haloacetic acids, which are subject to water quality standards. Among the haloacetonitriles, dichloroacetonitrile is now specified as an item for target setting for water quality management (provisional target: 0.01 mg/L or less), and trichloroacetonitrile, bromochloroacetonitrile, and dibromoacetonitrile (target value: 0.06 mg/L or less) are specified as items requiring study owing to their toxicity. In particular, the solvent extraction-GC/MS method is currently listed as an inspection method for dichloroacetonitrile, which is specified as an item for target setting for water quality management, but liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) is considered effective, as direct measurement is possible. This article introduces an example of simultaneous determination of three components in tap water by using an LCMS-8060 triple quadrupole LC/MS/MS. (Trichloroacetonitrile was not measured because ionization is considered difficult in LC/MS.) The results of a validation test confirmed that these three components can be measured with good accuracy in tap water without sample preparation.

March 4, 2021 GMT