Rapid Screening of Haloacetonitriles in Water Samples by Optimized Vortex-assisted Liquid-Liquid Microextraction

[Simultaneous determination of six haloacetonitriles in finished water for drinking by purge and trap-gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry]

Haloacetonitriles (HANs) are widely used in finished water as unregulated disinfection by-products. HANs may pose much threat to human health, and there is no relevant standard examination method for these compounds. A method was established for the simultaneous determination of six HANs (chloroacetonitrile (CAN), dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN), trichloroacetonitrile (TCAN), bromoacetonitrile (BAN), bromochloroacetonitrile (BCAN), and dibromoacetonitrile (DBAN)) in finished water by using purge and trap-gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The purge and trap technology helps realize automatic determination of samples after collection, without using any harmful reagent. The cost and analytical efficiency of this method were superior to those of solid phase microextraction (SPME). Considering the instability of HANs, the analysis must be carried out as soon as possible after sampling, in order to avoid significant changes in their concentration during storage. In particular, the use of an appropriate quenching agent was critical to sample collection. In this study, ascorbic acid was chosen as the quenching agent. The stabilities of the spiked samples at the levels of 0.1 (TCAN), 0.2 (CAN), 1.0 (DCAN), 1.0 (BAN), 1.0 (BCAN), 4.0 (DBAN) μg/L were tested. The effect of sample storage time (0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 h) on the responses of the target component was evaluated. The stability results showed that within 6 h, the relative standard deviations of the responses for the six HANs ranged from 2.32% to 6.98%. To validate the method, first, different traps, viz. 7# (Tenax), 10# (Teanx/silica gel/cms), 11# (VOCARB), and 12# (BTEXTRAP) were optimized. Second, various chromatographic columns (VF-5, Rxi-624, DB-VRX, and HP-INNOWAX) were compared to investigate their influence on the peak shape. Under the optimal detection conditions, the six HANs in finished water were extracted with the 10# trap. The volume of the water sample was used 25 mL, with purging at 35 ℃ for 11 min, and desorbed at 190 ℃ for 1 min. Chromatographic separation was performed on a Rxi-624Sil MS chromatographic column (60 m×0.25 mm×1.40 μm). Gas chromatographic conditions were obtained under the following conditions: split ratio, 1∶10; linear velocity, 30 cm/s. The triple quadrupole mass spectrometer was operated in the electron impact (EI) mode. The target compounds were detected in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Quantitation was carried out using the external standard method. The results showed that the matrix effects of the six HANs ranged from 0.85 to 1.09. Good linearities were obtained in the range of the standard curves. The correlation coefficients (r) were greater than 0.9991. The limits of detection (LODs, S/N=3) were 0.8-120.0 ng/L. The limits of quantification (LOQs, S/N=10) were 1.5-300.0 ng/L. The average recoveries of the six HANs ranged from 84.2% to 106%, and the RSDs were in the range of 1.81%-10.7%. In August 2020, 38 samples of finished water were tested. All of the six HANs were found in the finished water. The concentrations of the HANs were in the range of 0.0101-1.28 μg/L, and the total detection rate was 92.1%. The detection rates of the individual components followed the order DCAN>BCAN>CAN>TCAN>BAN>DBAN. The developed method is efficient, sensitive, and environmentally friendly. It provides a high-quality technical choice for monitoring and health risk assessment of the emerging disinfection by-products of HANs.