Liquid chromatography direct-detection methods

The method for chloroacetanilide soil metabolites in water determines concentrations of ethanesulfonic acid (ESA) and oxanilic acid (OXA) metabolites of alachlor, acetochlor, and metolachlor in surface water and groundwater samples by direct aqueous injection LC/MS/MS. After injection, compounds are separated by reversed-phase HPLC and introduced into the mass spectrometer with a TurboIonSpray atmospheric pressure ionization (API) interface. Using direct aqueous injection without prior SPE and/or concentration minimizes losses and greatly simplifies the analytical procedure. Standard addition experiments can be used to check for matrix effects. With multiple-reaction monitoring in the negative electrospray ionization mode, LC/MS/MS provides superior specificity and sensitivity compared with conventional liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) or liquid chromatography/ultraviolet detection (LC/UV), and the need for a confirmatory method is eliminated. In summary,... 

Gas and liquid chromatography directly coupled with atomic spectrometry have been reviewed [178,179], as well as the determination of trace elements by chromatographic methods employing atomic plasma emission spectrometric detection [180]. Sutton et al. [181] have reviewed the use and applications of ICP-MS as a chromatographic and capillary electrophoretic detector, whereas Niessen [182] has briefly reviewed the applications of mass spectrometry to hyphenated techniques. 

The spectrum of new analytical techniques includes superior separation techniques and sophisticated detection methods. Most of the novel instruments are hyphenated, where the separation and detection elements are combined, allowing efficient use of materials sometimes available only in minute quantities. The hyphenated techniques also significantly increase the information content of the analysis. Recent developments in separation sciences are directed towards micro-analytical techniques, including capillary gas chromatography, microbore high performance liquid chromatography, and capillary electrophoresis. 

The use of direct UV spectrophotometry to measure sample concentrations in pharmaceutical research is uncommon, presumably due to the prevalence and attractiveness of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) methods. Consequently, most researchers are unfamiliar with the value of UV detection, mainly that it is generally much faster than other methods - a very important asset in high-throughput screening. 

Despite its potential importance, formic acid has proven difficult to quantify at submicromolar levels in non-saline water samples. Formidable analytical difficulties are associated with its detection in highly saline samples. Ion exclusion, anion exchange, and reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography techniques based on the direct detection of formic acid in aqueous samples are prone to interferences (especially from inorganic salts) that ultimately limit the sensitivity of these methods. 

As a consequence of the previous considerations Kieber et al. [75] have developed an enzymic method to quantify formic acid in non-saline water samples at sub-micromolar concentrations. The method is based on the oxidation of formate by formate dehydrogenase with corresponding reduction of /3-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (j6-NAD+) to reduced -NAD+(/3-NADH) jS-NADH is quantified by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection. An important feature of this method is that the enzymic reaction occurs directly in aqueous media, even seawater, and does not require sample pre-treatment other than simple filtration. The reaction proceeds at room temperature at a slightly alkaline pH (7.5-8.5), and is specific for formate with a detection limit of 0.5 im (SIN = 4) for a 200 xl injection. The precision of the method was 4.6% relative standard deviation (n = 6) for a 0.6 xM standard addition of formate to Sargasso seawater. Average re-... 

While the alkyl chain distribution is determined on a non-polar RP8 and RP18, EO homologue distribution is determined using a polar phase. AEOs are not UV-absorbing species, so they cannot be directly determined by HPLC followed by standard optical detection systems (UV and FL), unless suitable derivatives are prepared [2], Because of this, methods based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry [77-79] are currently considered as the benchmark procedure that gives sufficiently high selectivity and sensitivity. 

Whilst these methods are informative for the characterisation of synthetic mixtures, the information gained and the nature of these techniques precludes their use in routine quantitative analysis of environmental samples, which requires methods amenable to the direct introduction of aqueous samples and in particular selective and sensitive detection. Conventionally, online separation techniques coupled to mass spectrometric detection are used for this, namely gas (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC). As a technique for agrochemical and environmental analyses, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to atmospheric pressure ionisation-mass spectrometry (API-MS) is extremely attractive, with the ability to analyse relatively polar compounds and provide detection to very low levels. 

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