Fast screening of pesticides in foods and agricultural products with probe electrospray ionization (PESI) tandem mass spectrometry

Due to the vast chemical diversity of pesticides, there is no chromatographic method that can cover all suspected pesticides in a single run. Hence, analytical laboratories are required to combine various techniques for full pesticide screening. DPiMS with the PESI ionization unit has the potential to fill the gap between LC and GC techniques, particularly for polar compounds that are not amenable to conventional chromatography.
In this study, 80 pesticides were selected as research targets, which are commonly monitored in vegetables every year in China. A PESI-MS/MS approach was developed aiming at both high throughput and quantification using MRM acquisition.