Particle beam LC/MS screening of polar compounds of contaminated ground water samples from a former gas plant

A commercial particle beam interface coupled to a single quadrupole mass spectrometer has been used for a nontarget screening of highly contaminated water samples from a former gas plant. A liquid chromatographic system has been used to separate hydrophilic compounds with a high percentage water gradient without any loss of efficiency in the MS interface. The ground water showed a high pollution burden in the total ion current chromatogram. Full scan EI mass spectra have been obtained for identification of unknown compounds which could be assigned to oxidation products of heterocyclic aromatic compounds, some known constituents of coal tar. The identification of 6(5H)-phenanthridinone has been confirmed by comparison with a corresponding standard. The difficulties of an unequivocal identification of isoquinolinone and methyl derivatives of quinolinone based on their EI mass spectra are discussed. Received: 7 March 1997 / Revised: 15 May 1997 / Accepted: 22 May 1997