title: Optimized liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry approach for the determination of diquat and paraquat herbicides.
abstract: Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) determination of quaternary ammonium herbicides diquat (DQ) and paraquat (PQ) can be very challenging due to their complicated chromatographic and mass spectrometric behaviors. Various multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) transitions from radical cations M(+) and singly charged cations [M-H](+), have been reported for LC-MS/MS quantitation under different chromatographic and mass spectrometric conditions. However, interference peaks were observed for certain previously reported MRM transitions in our study. Using a Dionex Acclaim(®) reversed-phase and HILIC mixed-mode LC column, we evaluated the most sensitive MRM transitions from three types of quasi-molecular ions of DQ and PQ, elucidated the cross-interference phenomena, and demonstrated that the rarely mentioned MRM transitions from dications M(2+) offered the best selectivity for LC-MS/MS analysis. Experimental parameters, such as IonSpray (IS) voltage, source temperature, declustering potential (DP), column oven temperature, collision energy (CE), acid and salt concentrations in the mobile phases were also optimized and an uncommon electrospray ionization (ESI) capillary voltage of 1000V achieved the highest sensitivity. Employing the proposed dication transitions 92/84.5 for DQ and 93/171 for PQ, the direct aqueous injection LC-MS/MS method developed was able to provide a method detection limit (MDL) of 0.1μg/L for the determination of these two herbicides in drinking water.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Services Branch, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, 125 Resources Road, Etobicoke, Ontario M9P 3V6, Canada. chunyan.hao@ontario.ca
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morse
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Vince
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Taguchi
authors.forename: Franca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Morra
mesh_terms: D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D056148:Chromatography, Reverse-Phase / Q000379:methods; D004178:Diquat / Q000032:analysis*; D006540:Herbicides / Q000032:analysis*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D010269:Paraquat / Q000032:analysis*; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D006540:Herbicides; D004178:Diquat; D010269:Paraquat
keywords: Diquat; Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry; Mixed-mode column; Paraquat; Quaternary ammonium herbicides