Investigation of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in waters by liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry

• Published in: TrAC, Trends in analytical chemistry (Regular ed.) Vol. 63; pp. 140 - 157
• Main Authors: Hernández, F., Ibáñez, M., Bade, R., Bijlsma, L., Sancho, J.V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.12.2014
• Subjects: Emerging contaminant; High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS); Illicit drug; LC-HRMS; Liquid chromatography (LC); Orbitrap; Pharmaceutical; Screening; Time of flight; Transformation product; High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS); Screening; Emerging contaminant; Illicit drug; Liquid chromatography (LC); Time of flight; Orbitrap; Pharmaceutical; LC-HRMS; Transformation product
• ISSN: 0165-9936; 1879-3142
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trac.2014.08.003

•Overview of LC-HRMS in investigating illicit drugs and pharmaceuticals in waters.•We consider time-of-flight (TOF) and Orbitrap mass analyzers.•We discuss the benefits of using UHPLC in combination with HRMS.•Target, suspect and non-target screening can be performed with the same instrument.•Retrospective analysis and discovery of transformation/degradation products. Mass spectrometry (MS) coupled to chromatography has been increasingly used in the environmental field, as it allows the best performance currently attainable for the investigation of a wide range of organic pollutants. When dealing with emerging contaminants, there is a clear trend towards the use of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) techniques, from tandem (low-resolution) MS to high-resolution (HR) MS. HRMS allows targeted and untargeted analysis, thanks to full-spectrum acquisition at high mass accuracy with good sensitivity. With the same instrument, target, suspect and non-target screening can be performed, as can retrospective analysis and discovery of transformation/degradation products. This article gives a general overview on the use of HRMS in LC-based methods directed towards the investigation of illicit drugs and pharmaceuticals in the aqueous environment. We consider time-of-flight and Orbitrap mass analyzers, and we discuss the benefits of using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) in combination with HRMS.