Selective determination of aromatic sulfonates in landfill leachates and groundwater using microbore liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry

Aromatic sulfonates (AS) are large-volume chemicals used in many technical processes of, for instance, the textile industry or construction. A LC/MS m ethod for the selective determination of AS in environmental samples, based on a single-quadrupole MS, was developed and validated. The central point of this technique is the use of the compound-specific fragment ion SO3.- as marker for aromatic sulfonates. This negatively charged SO3 radical, toget her with the fact that AS undergo loss of SO2, allows screening for AS in c omplex matrixes, even in the presence of sulfate anions. Calibration curves generated from LC/MS data showed good linearity over 3 orders of magnitude , with an absolute limit of detection of similar to 1 ng, The relative stan dard deviation for mean areas obtained from reconstructed ion chromatograms ranged from 2.9 to 8.6%. Unlike UV detection, this LC/MS method gives simi lar response for both naphthalene- and benzenesulfonates, The method presen ted was successfully applied to landfill leachates and groundwater, downstr eam of a landfill. Furthermore, this technique allowed identification of an unknown AS found in drain samples.