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Exploiting Molecular Ions for Screening Hydrophobic Contaminants in Sediments Using Gas Chromatography-Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization-Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Environmental Science.
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Environmental Science.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1549-7449
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Environmental Science.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5940-637X
Number of Authors: 42025 (English)In: Environmental Science and Technology, ISSN 0013-936X, E-ISSN 1520-5851, Vol. 59, no 9, p. 4699-4708Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) are conventionally screened by matching electron ionization (EI) mass spectra acquired using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to reference spectra. However, extensive in-source fragmentation hampers de novo structure elucidation of novel substances that are absent from EI databases. To address this problem, a new method based on GC-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) coupled to ion mobility-high resolution mass spectrometry (IM-HRMS) was developed for simultaneous target, suspect, and nontarget screening of HOCs. Of 102 target chemicals, 85.3% produced (quasi-)molecular ions as base peaks, while 71.6% displayed method detection limits lower than those of GC-EI-low resolution MS. The optimized method was applied to standard reference sediment and sediments from the Baltic Sea, an Arctic shelf, and a Norwegian lake. In total, we quantified 56 target chemicals with concentrations ranging from 4.86 pg g-1 to 124 ng g-1 dry weight. Further, using a combination of full scan mass spectrum, retention time, collision cross section (CCS), and fragmentation spectrum, a total of 54 suspects were identified at Confidence Level (CL) 2. Among the remaining features, 169 were prioritized using a halogen-selective CCS cutoff (100 Å2 + 20% mass), leading to annotation of 54 substances (CL ≤ 3). Notably, a suite of fluorotelomer thiols, disulfides, and alkyl sulfones were identified in sediment (CL 1-2) for the first time. Overall, this work demonstrates the potential of GC-APCI-IM-HRMS as a next-generation technique for resolving complex HOC mixtures in environmental samples through exploitation of molecular ions.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. Vol. 59, no 9, p. 4699-4708
Keywords [en]
atmospheric pressure chemical ionization, collision cross section, hydrophobic contaminants, neutral per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, sediment
National Category
Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-241903DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c13059ISI: 001432699000001PubMedID: 39996462Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85218967389OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-241903DiVA, id: diva2:1951241
Available from: 2025-04-10 Created: 2025-04-10 Last updated: 2025-04-10Bibliographically approved

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Sobek, AnnaBenskin, Jonathan P.

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