Ammonium chloride salting out extraction/cleanup for trace-level quantitative analysis in food and biological matrices by flow injection tandem mass spectrometry

A sample extraction and purification procedure that uses ammonium-salt-induced acetonitrile/water phase separation was developed and demonstrated to be compatible with the recently reported method for pesticide residue analysis based on fast extraction and dilution flow injection mass spectrometry (FED-FI-MS). The ammonium salts evaluated were chloride, acetate, formate, carbonate, and sulfate. A mixture of NaCl and MgSO₄, salts used in the well-known QuEChERS method, was also tested for comparison. With thermal decomposition/evaporation temperature of <350 °C, ammonium salts resulted in negligible ion source residual under typical electrospray conditions, leading to consistent method performance and less instrument cleaning. Although all ammonium salts tested induced acetonitrile/water phase separation, NH₄Cl yielded the best performance, thus it was the preferred salting out agent. The NH₄Cl salting out method was successfully coupled with FI/MS/MS and tested for fourteen pesticide active ingredients: chlorantraniliprole, cyantraniliprole, chlorimuron ethyl, oxamyl, methomyl, sulfometuron methyl, chlorsulfuron, triflusulfuron methyl, azimsulfuron, flupyrsulfuron methyl, aminocyclopyrachlor, aminocyclopyrachlor methyl, diuron and hexazinone. A validation study was conducted with nine complex matrices: sorghum, rice, grapefruit, canola, milk, eggs, beef, urine and blood plasma. The method is applicable to all analytes, except aminocyclopyrachlor. The method was deemed appropriate for quantitative analysis in 114 out of 126 analyte/matrix cases tested (applicability rate = 0.90). The NH₄Cl salting out extraction/cleanup allowed expansion of FI/MS/MS for analysis in food of plant and animal origin, and body fluids with increased ruggedness and sensitivity, while maintaining high-throughput (run time = 30 s/sample). Limits of quantitation (LOQs) of 0.01 mg kg⁻¹ (ppm), the ‘well-accepted standard’ in pesticide residue analysis, were achieved in >80% of cases tested; while limits of detection (LODs) were typically in the range of 0.001–0.01 mg kg⁻¹ (ppm). A comparison to a well-established HPLC/MS/MS method was also conducted, yielding comparable results, thus confirming the suitability of NH₄Cl salting out FI/MS/MS for pesticide residue analysis.     

Assay of Ivermectin Including Determination and Identification of Its Related Substances in Ivermectin Injectable Product by a Stability-Indicating RP-HPLC Method

Chromatographia - Ivermectin injectable product is widely used as a parasiticide for the treatment and control of internal and external parasites of cattle and swine. A reversed-phase high...     

Shape resonances in slow electron scattering by aromatic molecules. I. Anthraquinone derivatives

A series of anthraquinone (C(14)O(2)H(8)) derivatives has been studied by means of electron capture negative ion mass spectrometry (ECNI-MS), photoelectron spectroscopy (PES), and AM1 quantum chemical calculations. Mean lifetimes of molecular negative ions M(-.) (MNI) have been measured. The mechanism of long-lived MNI formation in the epithermal energy region of incident electrons has been investigated. A simple model of a molecule (a spherical potential well with the repulsive centrifugal term) has been applied for the analysis of the energy dependence of cross sections at the first stage of the electron capture process. It has been shown that a temporary resonance of MNI at the energy approximately 0.5 eV corresponds to a shape resonance with lifetime 1-2.10(-13) s in the f-partial wave (l = 3) of the incident electron. The next resonant state of MNI at the energy approximately 1.7 eV has been associated with the electron excited Feshbach resonance (whose parent state is a triplet npi* transition). In all cases the initial electron state of the MNI relaxes into the ground state by means of a radiationless transition, and the final state of the MNI is a nuclear excited resonance with a lifetime measurable on the mass spectrometry timescale. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Separation of nucleotides by hydrophilic interaction chromatography using the FRULIC-N column

A stationary phase composed of silica-bonded cyclofructan 6 (FRULIC-N) was evaluated for the separation of four cyclic nucleotides, six nucleoside monophosphates, four nucleoside diphosphates, and five nucleoside triphosphates via hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) in both isocratic and gradient conditions. The gradient conditions gave significantly better separations by narrowing peak widths. Sixteen out of nineteen nucleotides were baseline separated on the FRULIC-N column in one run. Unlike other known HILIC stationary phases, there can be dual-retention mechanisms unique to this media. Traditional hydrogen bonding/dipolar interactions can be supplemented by dynamic ion interaction effects for anionic analytes. This occurs because the FRULIC-N stationary phase is able to bind certain buffer cations. The extent of the ion interaction is tunable, in comparison to stationary phases with embedded charged groups, where the inherent ionic properties are fixed. The best mobile phase conditions were determined by varying the organic modifier (acetonitrile) content, as well as salt type/concentration and electrolyte pH. The thermodynamic characteristic of the FRULIC-N column was investigated by evaluating the column temperature effect on retention and utilizing van’t Hoff plots. This study shows that there is a greater entropic contribution for the retention of nucleotide di and triphosphates, whereas there is a greater enthalphic contribution for the cyclic nucleotides with the FRULIC-N column.     

Sulfonated cyclofructan 6 based stationary phase for hydrophilic interaction chromatography

A stationary phase composed of silica-bonded sulfonated cyclofructan 6 (SCF6) was synthesized and evaluated for hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC). The separation of a large variety of polar compounds was evaluated on different versions of the stationary phase and compared with the same separations obtained with commercially available HILIC columns. The new columns successfully separate polar and hydrophilic compounds including β blockers, xanthines, salicylic acid related compounds, nucleic acid bases, nucleosides, maltooligosaccharides, water soluble vitamins and amino acids. The separation conditions were optimized by changing the composition and the pH of the mobile phase. The dependence of analyte retention on temperature was studied using van't Hoff plots. The newly synthesized stationary phase showed broad applicability for HILIC mode separations.     

Evaluation of aromatic-derivatized cyclofructans 6 and 7 as HPLC chiral selectors

The two best aromatic-functionalized cyclofructan chiral stationary phases, R-naphthylethyl-carbamate cyclofructan 6 (RN-CF6) and dimethylphenyl-carbamate cyclofructan 7 (DMP-CF7), were synthesized and evaluated by injecting various classes of chiral analytes. They provided enantioselectivity toward a broad range of compounds, including chiral acids, amines, metal complexes, and neutral compounds. It is interesting that they exhibited complementary selectivities and the combination of two columns provided enantiomeric separations for 43% of the test analytes. These extensive chromatographic results provided useful information about method development of specific analytes, and also gave some insight as to the enantioseparation mechanism.     

Modelling of extreme wave heights and periods through copulas

Optimal design of coastal or offshore structures requires the estimation of extreme quantiles of oceanographic data such as wave heights and wave periods. Since there are strong correlations between oceanographic variables, it is necessary to use multivariate models in order to capture its dependencies. To achieve this, an approach based on copulas is proposed and is compared to a model based on the physical behaviour of waves.     

Enantiomeric impurities in chiral catalysts,auxiliaries, and synthons used in enantioselective syntheses. Part 4

The enantiomeric purity of chiral reagents used in asymmetric syntheses directly affects the apparent reaction selectivity and the product’s enantiomeric excess. Herein, 46 recently available chiral compounds were evaluated in order to determine their actual enantiomeric compositions. They have not been assayed previously and/or have been introduced after 2006, when the last comprehensive evaluation of commercially available chiral compounds was reported. These compounds are widely used in asymmetric syntheses as chiral synthons, catalysts, and auxiliaries. The enantioselective analysis methods include HPLC approaches using Chirobiotic, Cyclobond and LARIHC series chiral stationary phases, and GC approaches using Chiraldex chiral stationary phases. Accurate, efficient assays for selected compounds are given. All enantiomeric test results were categorized within five impurity levels (i.e., <0.01%, 0.01–0.1%, 0.1–1%, 1–10% and >10%). Different batches of the same reagent from the same company can have different levels of enantiomeric impurities. Many of the reagents tested were found to have less than 0.1% enantiomeric impurities. Only one of the chiral compounds was found to have an enantiomeric impurity exceeding 10%.     

Binding characteristics of native cyclofructan 6 and its derivatives with metal ions

The binding ability of native, isopropylated and permethylated cyclofructan 6 (CF6) with various cations was characterised in water and hydro-organic solvents. Association constants (K_ass) of 24 cations including alkali metals, transition metals and lanthanides were measured using NMR titrations and a nonlinear least square treatment of the data. Ba²⁺ and Pb²⁺ showed the highest binding abilities with native CF6 in both D₂O and 40% methanol-d₄. Metal ion binding increased with an increasing in methanol content. The weaker binding of cations with CF6 in acetonitrile-d₃ compared with those of methanolic solvents was noted and indicated the importance of dehydration of the host and guest to binding affinity. The effect of counteranions such as chloride, nitrate, perchlorate and acetate on binding was examined. Isopropyl-CF6 provided slightly higher binding affinities with cations than native CF6 in D₂O and 40% methanol-d₄, whereas permethylated CF6 only associated with K⁺ cation in 80% methanol-d₄. There are distinctly different metal ion-binding selectivities between native and derivatised CF6.