A comparison between positive and negative ion modes in thermospray liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for the determination of chlorophenols and herbicides

Summary Positive and negative ion modes (Pl and NI, respectively) have been employed for the characterization of 2,4-dichlorophenol, 2,4,5-trichlorophenol, pentachlorophenol, Linuron and Cyanazine in thermospray (TSP) liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The PI mode showed no response when 200 ng of the different chlorophenols were injected, while for Linuron and Cyanazine high signals were obtained with M+NH₄]⁺ and M+acetic acid]⁺ ions as base peaks, respectively. With the NI mode, the base peak usually corresponds to the M−H]⁻ ion, with better sensitivities for the chlorophenols than for the herbicides. The chloride adduct M+Cl]⁻ ion was also obtained for 2,4,5-trichlorophenol and for Linuron. Although the PI mode is more sensitive than the NI mode for the two herbicides, the combination of both ionization modes offers complementary structural information for characterizing such compounds in TSP LC-MS.