CHARACTERIZATION OF TRIAZINE HERBICIDES BY ELECTROSPRAY AND TANDEM MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Electrospray mass spectrometry has aided the structural characterizati on of triazine herbicides standards. Possible fragmentation routes wer e first obtained by controlled collision-activated dissociation (CAD) initiated by cone voltage fragmentation. Low energy CAD MS-MS analyses of the protonated molecules [M+H](+) confirmed the characteristic fin gerprint patterns obtained by cone voltage fragmentation for all inves tigated triazine herbicides and also permitted differentiation of isom eric triazines. MS-MS analyses of selected intermediate fragments prov ided additional structural data, and established the fragmentation rou tes of their [M+K](+) precursors. Electrospray MS has been proven to b e a specific and very sensitive method for the detection and character ization of herbicides.