QSight-based method for the detection and quantification of polar contaminants in drinking water

An analytical method covering various difficult polar contaminats such as chlorate, bromate, bromide, glyphosate and AMPA was successfully developed utilizing direct injection and ion exchange columns. Linearity could be obtained for each compound, with a dynamic range of 2-3 magnitudes and regression coefficients (r2) ≥ 0.995. Furthermore, for some compounds levels as low as 10 ng/L could be reached demonstrating the extreme sensitivity of the QSight UPHLC-MS/MS. Moreover, it could be shown that by simple direct injection of drinking or surface water the sample preparation could be completely eliminated. The present work aims at illustrating the performance of a targeted LC-MS/MS method using a QSight triple quadrupole mass spectrometer for the quantification of several difficult polar contaminants in drinking water and meeting current EU regulatory limits.