Determination of interfering triazine degradation products by gas chromatography–ion trap mass spectrometry

Deethylatrazine (DEA), an atrazine degradation product, has been added to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List (CCL). In its gas chromatographic analysis, DEA can coelute with deisopropylatrazine (DIA), another degradation product. The present work demonstrates that the coelution of DEA and DIA can induce a significant (up to ∼50%) positive bias in the DEA determination, when using an ion-trap mass spectrometer as the detector. The DIA determination is unaffected by the coelution within experimental error. This may be explained in terms of gas-phase ion fragment populations. A correction factor to the observed DEA concentration may be developed based on the measured DIA concentration.