Analysis of Anionic Pesticides Using High Performance Ion Chromatography

"Pesticides" is a term that covers over 1000 compounds. Lucky, a great majority of them can be extracted with one of the generic extraction protocols (QuEChERS, SweEt, miniLuke) and subsequently analysed by LC-MS/MS or GC-MS/MS. Nevertheless, some compounds require a special approach, highly polar and ionic pesticides (e.g. glyphosate and its metabolites) are amongst them. Derivatisation overcomes the problem with poor retention in reversed-phase chromatography, however this approach is laborious, and it cannot be applied to all ionic compounds. Ion chromatography is an interesting solution for the problems with chromatographic analysis of polar pesticides. This technique provides reasonable retention times for a broad spectrum of polar analytes. Although the mobile phase contains potassium hydroxide, the suppressor makes the effluent fully compatible with the electrospray ionisation and mass spectrometry. The presentation will give a short overview of the applications and benefits of high-performance ion chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry. Both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the pesticide residue analysis will be discussed. Amongst the matrices, there will be fruit and vegetables, acorns, honey, and pollen.