Sustainable and Rapid Determination of Two Halogenated Pesticides in a Commercial Formulation by Solid Phase Microextraction and Liquid Phase Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

This work presents a sustainable and rapid method for halogenated pesticide analysis without chromatographic separation. The system is composed of a microfluidic open interface (MOI) for solid-phase microextraction (SPME) liquid phase desorption, connected to a liquid electron ionization mass spectrometry interface (LEI-MS). Either a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (QQQ-MS/MS, (low-resolution) or a quadrupole-time-of-flight tandem MS (QTOF-MS/MS, high-resolution) were employed, each operating in negative chemical ionization (NCI) conditions. The flow rate used (100 µL/min) to rapidly empty the MOI chamber (approximately 2.5 µL) is reduced to the working flow rate of the LEI interface (500 nL/min) by a passive flow splitter (PFS). NCI is an appropriate ionization technique for electrophilic compounds, increasing specificity and reducing background noise. Two halogenated pesticides, dicamba and tefluthrin, were extracted simultaneously from a commercial formulation matrix (CF) using a C18 fiber by direct immersion (3 min under vortex agitation). Analyte desorption occurred in static conditions inside MOI filled with acidified acetonitrile (ACN) (0.2% phosphoric acid, PA). Extraction and desorption steps were optimized to increase efficiency and accelerate the process. No chromatographic separation was involved; therefore, the system fully exploited MS/MS selectivity and HRMS accuracy demonstrating good linearity, repeatability and limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) in the pg/mL range (50 and 500 pg/mL, respectively). Low-resolution experiments showed that matrix effects (ME) did not affect the results. The fast workflow (5 min) makes the system suitable for high-throughput analysis observing the principles of green analytical chemistry (GAC).