title: Determination of halonitromethanes in treated water.
abstract: As halonitromethanes (HNMs) have begun to play an increasingly important role as disinfection by-products, the development of a highly sensitive method for their analysis has become a priority. The mass spectrometric behavior of the 9 HNMs revealed that trihalonitromethanes are more unstable than di- or monohalonitromethanes under common chromatographic conditions. The absence of a comprehensive method for HNMs has given rise to the development of the first method for the whole array of these species, involving the selection of a solventless technique. Single drop microextraction in the headspace mode (HS-SDME) was selected as it is inexpensive and easy to operate. Comparative measurements through EPA liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) method for halogenated volatile compounds, show this approach to be superior to the manual LLE procedure (the average limits of detection (LODs) for the 9 HNMs were 0.5 and 1 μg/L for the HS-SDME and EPA methods, respectively), adequate precision (8.2 and 7.0% for HS-SDME and EPA methods, respectively) and does not consume excessive solvent since the total extract (∼2 μL) was injected completely into the GC-MS instrument. The method was used to measure HNMs in treated water and the results were compared to the EPA method in parallel.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Campus of Rabanales, University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Montesinos
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cardador
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gallego
mesh_terms: D005591:Chemical Fractionation / Q000379:methods; D004980:Ethane / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000737:chemistry; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated / Q000737:chemistry; D006846:Hydrocarbons, Halogenated / Q000032:analysis*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D016014:Linear Models; D009574:Nitro Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated; D006846:Hydrocarbons, Halogenated; D009574:Nitro Compounds; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D014867:Water; C533588:bromonitromethane; C100187:chloropicrin; D004980:Ethane