Determination of the Pesticides Ethoprophos and Atrazine in Water by T-Shaped Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization (APCI) Mass Spectrometry (MS)

Abstract

With the goal of enhancing the low sensitivity of the conventional atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source due to the ion divergence, here is reported a T-shaped ion source to improve the sensitivity with a portable mass spectrometer for the rapid determination of the pesticides ethoprophos and atrazine in water. Compared with conventional APCI, the ion source improves the sensitivity for the analytes. The results show that the analysis requires less than 2 s, the limit of detection (LOD) is better than 0.1${ \mu g·\mathit{\text{mL}}}^{-1},$ and the relative standard deviation (RSD) is 16% at 1, 5, and 25 ${\mu g·\mathit{\text{mL}}}^{-1}.$ The recoveries of the analytes are between 80% and 130%, meeting the requirements for rapid pesticide determination in water.

Keywords:

• Atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) mass spectrometry (MS)
• atrazine
• ethoprophos
• pesticide
• T-shaped ion source

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China by grants number U20A20121 and 61971248; the Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province by grant number 2020C03064; the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province by grant number LY22F010004; the Ningbo Science and Technology Project by grant number 2021S130; and the K.C. Wong Magna Fund of Ningbo University.