Liquid chromatography/atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometry with post-column liquid mixing for the efficient determination of partially oxidized polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

The analytical hyphenation of micro-flow high-performance liquid chromatography (LC), with post-column liquid mixing and mass spectrometric detection (MS) was established to detect partially oxidized polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (oxy-PAHs) for low quantity samples. 100 pmol injections of 30 reference standards could be detected in good sensitivity using either atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) and/or atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI). The connected mass spectrometer was a single quadrupol analyzer realizing simultaneous registration of positive and negative ions in scan range width of 200–300 Da. The ionization efficiency was compared using three ionization sources (incl. electrospray ionization (ESI)) for several oxy-PAHs. According to the mass spectra, the analytes behave differently in ionization properties. Ionization mechanism (e.g. deprotonated ions and electron captured ions) could be discussed with new inside views. Finally, the hyphenated system was applied to an exemplary aerosol extract and thus highlighting the expedient utilization of this downscaled method for real samples.