Analysis of polar organic micropollutants in water with ion chromatographyelectrospray mass spectrometry

The coupling of ion chromatography (IC) with electrospray mass spectrometry (ES-MS) opens new ways for the determination of polar organic micropolluta nts in water samples. The technique of conductivity suppression has been fo und to reduce the background signal in the range of about two-orders of mag nitude leading to a significant increase in sensitivity. In addition, the f ormation of salt adducts has been avoided. The usefulness of this method wa s proven on several polar and environmentally relevant micropollutants such as the herbicide glyphosate and its metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), the chelating agent ethylenediamine tetraacetate (EDTA) and diaceto nketogulonic acid (DAG). This present study has shown that IC-ES-MS is a si mple, sensitive and quick method for the determination of these polar organ ic traces in water samples after separation on an anion-exchange column wit hout any derivatization. In this work, several possibilities of application s of IC-ES-MS (with varying conditions) are presented. Analysis of glyphosa te, AMPA, DAG and EDTA in ground and surface waters has been achieved by IC -ES-MS without additional sample preparation at a concentration level of 1 mu g/l. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.