Several directives throughout the EU provide guidance on environmental quality standards for water, and define more than 30 priority substances as significant risk to humans. Many of the monitoring limits within these directives are set at low µg/L (ppb) levels, and as such, require highly sensitive methods and instrumentation.
In this study, various methods for the separation, detection and quantitation of complex polar contaminants by UHPLC/MS/MS are presented. Utilizing two columns and three separate analytical methods, metabolites such as trifluoracetic acid, the antidiabetic metformin, and various inorganic contaminants, such as chlorate and bromate are successfully and efficiently quantified.