Screening and Trace Level Determination of Emerging Organic Contaminants in Natural and Waste Waters Using a LTQ/Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer

摘要

Due to its high selectivity and sensitivity liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (triple quadrupole) is nowadays the method of choice for quantification of polar organic contaminants like pharmaceuticals and pesticides in environmental samples. The limitation of triple quadrupole MS running in the selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode is that only preselected target compounds can be processed. To overcome this restriction, high resolution (HR) time-of-flight mass spectrometers (TOF-MS) in scanning mode have been successfully applied to screening for emerging contaminants using extracted ion chromatograms. Similarly, the high mass accuracy and resolution of the LTQ Orbitrap in combination with its high sensitivity opens up advanced capabilities for the quantification of target analytes and identification of unknown compounds in natural waters.