title: Derivatization method for sensitive determination of fluorotelomer alcohols in sediment by liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.
abstract: Fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs) are the main precursors of environmentally ubiquitous perfluorinated acids, and determination of FTOHs at low concentrations presents significant challenges. In this study, a new liquid chromatography-electrospray mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) method in conjunction with low-energy collision dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (CID-MS/MS) was developed by employing an optimized derivatization reaction with dansyl chloride (DNS) in acetonitrile under catalysis of 4-(dimethylamino)-pyridine (DMAP). The instrument detection limits (IDLs) of the newly developed method were 0.014, 0.015, 0.014, 0.0075 and 0.0093μg/L for 4:2 FTOH, 6:2 FTOH, 8:2 FTOH, 10:1 FTOH and 10:2 FTOH respectively, which were 7.5-241 times lower than those without derivatizaiton and 57-357 times lower than previous GC/MS method. The method was successfully applied to analyze FTOHs in sediments combined with WAX and silica cartridges cleanup. The overall method recoveries were from 67±6.0% to 83±9.4% with matrix effects of <15%. The limits of quantification for all FTOHs were 0.017-0.060ng/gdry weight (dw). The method was applied to analyze six marine sediment samples from Liaodong Bay, China. All FTOHs except for 10:1 FTOH were detected, and the total concentrations of FTOHs were 0.19-0.52ng/gdw. The developed method provides a new method to sensitively determine FTOHs in environmental matrices.
authors.affiliation: MOE Laboratory for Earth Surface Process, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Kejun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Fanrong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jianying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000438:Alcohols / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D002681:China; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D005466:Fluorocarbons / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000438:Alcohols; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D005466:Fluorocarbons