GC-MS LC-MS and LC-MS/MS of Soil Samples from a Former Mustard Storage Site for the Presence of Mustard Thiodiglycol and Related Compounds

摘要

Soil samples were taken for the first time at a number of locations and depths near a former mustard storage site as part of an environmental assessment. The contactor doing the sampling selected a number of soil samples from the site for mass spectrometric analysis. Mustard was not detected in the dichloromethane extracts of the soil samples during capillary column GC-MS. However, three of the soil sample extracts were found to contain thiodiglycol and/or related mustard hydrolysis products. A recently developed low resolution LC-ESI-MS method was applied to the identification of mustard hydrolysis products in aqueous extracts of soil. Thiodiglycol was detected by LC-ESI-MS in the aqueous extracts of two soil samples at the 200 mu g/mL and 300 mu g/mL levels, along with three longer chain diols associated with the hydrolysis of munitions grade mustard. Identification of a number of other related compounds was not possible by LC-ESI-MS. The recent acquisition of a high resolution LC- ESI-MS/MS at DRDC Suffield provided an opportunity to accurately determine elemental composition during analyses, a considerable advantage when confirming compound presence or when dealing with the identification of previously uncharacterized compounds in complex environmental samples. High resolution LC- ESI-MS/MS methods were developed for the determination of thiodiglycol and longer chain diols and applied to the analysis of these compounds in the aqueous extracts of the soil samples collected from the former mustard storage site. Detailed analysis of these aqueous extracts by high resolution LC-ESI-MS/MS resulted in the confirmation of thiodiglycol and three longer chain diols and the characterization of five new longer chain diols that could not be characterized during low resolution LC-ESI-MS analyses.