Rapid determination of nine haloacetic acids in water using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in multiple reactions monitoring mode

Optimized chromatographic conditions for separation of halogenated acetic acids by ultra-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry

“…The HSS T3 bonding utilizes a trifunctional C18 alkyl phase bonded at a ligand density that promotes polar compound retention and aqueous mobile-phase compatibility. Formic acid gave the best retention and separation of the 10 HAAs in the water samples [28]. The T3 end-capping was much more effective than traditional trimethyl silane end-capping and provided superior polar compound retention and aqueous compatibility.…”

“…Therefore, 0.1% formic acid, 0.1% acetic acid, 5 mmol/L ammonium formate-formic acid buffer (pH 3.5-4.0), and 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate-acetic acid buffer (pH 4.0-4.5) were investigated as mobile phases to obtain the most effective separation of the target HAAs. Because the pKa values of the 13 HAAs are very low, most of the analytes should exist in their ionic forms at pH 4.1 [28,30]. With formic or acetic acid as the mobile phase, retention of the HAAs increased compared with when ammonium formate or ammonium acetate buffer was used as the mobile phase (Table 2).…”

“…HAAs are generally difficult to separate using LC columns because they are hydrophilic and strongly acidic with pKa values ranging from 0.63 to 4.1 [28,30]. The major commercially available UPLC columns are the HSS series (High Strength Silica; T3 and C18) and the BEH series (Ethylene Bridged Hybrid; C8 and C18), which have slightly different solid phases to routine LC columns.…”

“…Generally, more fragmentation will occur as the cone voltage increases. In addition, an acidic mobile phase can increase the retention time of the analytes but suppress the signal intensity, and the extent of this is dependent on the individual species [28]. To eliminate the influence of amines (volatile ion pair reagents), a higher fragmentor voltage (40 V) was used in an earlier study [29].…”

A fully-automated analyzer for determining haloacetic acid concentrations in drinking water

“…Researchers have embraced MS for HAAs analysis (Duan et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2011;Li et al, 2012Li et al, , 2013Prieto-Blanco et al, 2012;Casas Ferreira et al, 2013;Hung and Her, 2013;Luo et al, 2013). Derivatization methods (Li et al, 2013) convert the HAAs to volatile species amenable for GC-MS analysis, similar to USEPA methods (USEPA, 1995(USEPA, , 2003 and others (Hammami and Driss, 2013;Liu et al, 2013), but have high labor costs.…”