The speciation of mercury and organomercury compounds by high performance liquid chromatography/atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometry

• Published in: Rapid communications in mass spectrometry Vol. 12; no. 14; pp. 911 - 916
• Main Authors: Harrington, Christopher F., Romeril, Julie, Catterick, Tim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 31-07-1998
• ISSN: 0951-4198; 1097-0231
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0231(19980731)12:14<911::AID-RCM254>3.0.CO;2-X

A method for the structural confirmation of mercury (II) chloride and organomercury (II) chlorides (monomethylmercury chloride, monoethylmercury chloride and monophenylmercury chloride) employing liquid chromatography coupled to atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometry was developed. The chromatographic system comprised a Kromasil 100‐5C18, 5μm (250 × 4.6 mm) column and a mobile phase of 2‐mercaptoethanol (0.01% v/v) in methanol: water (1:1 v/v), at a flow rate of 1 mL min−1. The optimization of the API‐MS conditions is discussed, together with the fragmentation patterns observed for standards. No peaks due to the molecular ion were present and the most intense peaks were due to [M + mercaptoethanol]+ or [M + 2 mercaptoethanol − H]+. The qualitative analysis of fish tissue spiked with methylmercury (II) chloride, using selected ion monitoring (SIM), is discussed. © 1998 LGC (Teddington) Ltd.