Quantification of quaternary ammonium compounds by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry: Minimizing losses from the field to the laboratory.
J Chromatogr A
; 1723: 464905, 2024 May 24.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38640882
ABSTRACT
Quaternary Ammonium Compounds (QACs) are widely used in household, medical and industrial settings. As a consequence, they are ubiquitously found in the environment. Although significant efforts have been put into the development of sensitive and reproducible analytical methods, much less effort has been dedicated to the monitoring of QACs upon sample storage and sample preparation. Here we studied the effect of storage, concentration, and extraction procedures on the concentrations of QACs in samples. Thirteen QACs selected amongst benzalkonium compounds (BACs), dialkyldimethylammonium compounds (DADMACs) and alkyltrimethylammonium compounds (ATMACs) were quantified in aqueous and solid samples using LC-MS/MS. Most QACs adsorbed on container walls could be recovered using a short washing step with MeOH containing 2 % v/v formic acid. Concentrations of QACs from aqueous solutions using solid phase extraction (SPE) with Strata-X cartridges and elution with acidified MeOH utilized to wash the emptied containers gave highly satisfactory recoveries (101-111 %). Good recoveries (89-116 %) were also obtained when extracting a spiked organic-rich synthetic soil using accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) with acidified MeOH at low solid/solvent ratio (0.4 g/20 mL). Applying the recommended methodologies to real samples collected from a Canadian wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) gave QAC concentrations in the ranges of 0.01-30 µg/L, < 1.2 µg/L, and 0.05-27 mg/kg for the influent, effluent and biosolids samples, respectively.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Tandem Mass Spectrometry
/
Solid Phase Extraction
/
Quaternary Ammonium Compounds
Language:
En
Journal:
J Chromatogr A
/
J. chromatogr. A
/
Journal of chromatography A
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Country of publication:
Países Bajos