PARTICLE-BEAM LC MS SCREENING OF POLAR COMPOUNDS OF CONTAMINATED GROUND-WATER SAMPLES FROM A FORMER GAS PLANT/

A commercial particle beam interface coupled to a single quadrupole ma ss spectrometer has been used for a nontarget screening of highly cont aminated water samples from a former gas plant. A liquid chromatograph ic system has been used to separate hydrophilic compounds with a high percentage water gradient without any loss of efficiency in the MS int erface. The ground water showed a high pollution burden in the total i on current chromatogram. Full scan Fl mass spectra have been obtained for identification of unknown compounds which could be assigned to oxi dation products of heterocyclic aromatic compounds, some known constit uents of coal tar. The identification of 6(5H)-phenanthridinone has be en confirmed by comparison with a corresponding standard. The difficul ties of an unequivocal identification of isoquinolinone and methyl der ivatives of quinolinone based on their EI mass spectra are discussed.