Tl. Jones et Ld. Betowski, CHARACTERIZATION OF ALKYL-TINS AND ARYL-TINS BY MEANS OF ELECTROSPRAYMASS-SPECTROMETRY, Rapid communications in mass spectrometry, 7(11), 1993, pp. 1003-1008
The organotins, mainly the trialkyltins and triphenyltins, have a wide
spread application as fungicides, anti-fouling coatings for porous and
non-porous surfaces, herbicides, insecticides, and generic biocides.
Traditional environmental monitoring methods can only give limited spe
ciation of the organometallics. The speciation of a wide variety of al
kyl- and aryl-tin isomers using liquid chromatography coupled with mas
s spectrometry under positive-ionization conditions is reported. Detec
tion of the organotins was enhanced by the use of acetic acid in the m
ethanol mobile phase. There were unexpected high-mass ions with multip
le tin-isotope patterns present in many of the spectra. These high-mas
s species were possibly attributable to tin polymers, whose presence h
as been observed by others using X-ray methods.