UPLC-MS/MS method for the determination of acrylic acid in tap water

Abstract

A simple and rapid method employing ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry has been developed for the direct determination of acrylic acid in tap water for the first time. The method worked on a ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography system and utilized the direct injection of 10 μL volumes. Aqueous samples were filtered with 0.22 μm membrane after diluting with the acetonitrile without any further pretreatment. The separation was accomplished by using a HILIC column with a gradient elution program. Acetonitrile and ammonium acetate solution (pH = 7) were applied in the method as the mobile phase. Acrylic acid- d₃ was used as the internal standard in the quantification process. The method provided good recovery from 102.8% to 104.4%, good precision with intraday relative standard deviations in a range of 2.3% and 5.1%. The limit of quantification for the method was 45 μg/L. The possible structures of qualitative ion and quantitative ion of acrylic acid were proposed in this work with the help of the product ion spectra of acrylic acid and its corresponding isotopic standards. This study provided a reliable and quantitative method that could be used for daily monitoring of water quality.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Acrylic acid
• tap water
• fragment pathways
• UPLC-MS/MS method
• HILIC

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Jiangsu Commission of Health under Jiangsu Young Medical Talent [QNRC2016543].