Applicability of Liquid Chromatography with Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometric Detection for Determination of Cyanuric Acid in Soil

• Published in: Croatica Chemica Acta Vol. 86; no. 1; pp. 95 - 102
• Main Authors: Stipičević, Sanja, Mendaš, Gordana, Vuletić, Marko, Fingler, Sanja, Drevenkar, Vlasta
• Format: Journal Article Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Zagreb Croatica Chemica Acta 01.05.2013; Croatica Chemica Acta, Croatian Chemical Society; Hrvatsko kemijsko društvo
• Subjects: Chemical compounds; Chemical properties; Chromatography; Cyanuric acid; Identification and classification; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Methods; soil matrix interferences; Soil pollution; soil, liquid chromatography; Soils; Time-of-flight mass spectrometry
• ISSN: 0011-1643; 1334-417X
• DOI: 10.5562/cca2109

Cyanuric acid (2,4,6-trihydroxy-1,3,5-triazine, CA) is a highly polar and hydrophilic degradation product of symmetric triazine herbicides, fairly stable under environmental conditions. We investigated the applicability of reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled to time-of- flight mass spectrometry (LC-ToF-MS) for qualitative and quantitative determination of CA in soils of different origin and pedological characteristics. CA was ultrasonically extracted from soils either with a mixture of acetone and n-hexane (volume ratio = 2:1) or with methanol and analysed on a LiChrospher 100 CN column with ψ(acetonitrile,water) = 50:50 as the mobile phase for isocratic elution. The efficiency and selectivity of LC-ToF-MS determination, using the electrospray ionisation in negative mode and selective monitoring of deprotonated CA molecule (m/z 128), was evaluated with respect to injection volume, extracting solvent, and possible soil matrix interferences. The advantage of LC-ToF-MS over conventional HPLC with UV-diode array detection was the high ion detection selectivity minimising the interferences of coeluting species and the unambiguous identification of CA in soil extracts by accurate mass measurements of deprotonated molecule. (doi: 10.5562/cca2109) Keywords: cyanuric acid, soil, liquid chromatography, time-of-flight mass spectrometry, soil matrix interferences