Speciation of glyphosate, phosphate and aminomethylphosphonic acid in soil extracts by ion chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry with an octopole reaction system

Ion-pairing chromatography coupled with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) used for the speciation Of Phosphorus is limited as the mobile phase containing organic solvents changes in detection sensitivity and the carbon precipitates on torch and cones. To address this issue, anion-exchange chromatography with ICP-MS has been used for the speciation of glyphosate, phosphate and aminomethylphosphonic acid in soil extracts. The separation of the targets on a new column was achieved within 5 min using all eluent containing 20 mM NH(4)NO(3) at pH 5.1. Furthermore, since the polyatomic ions such as (14)N(16)O(1)H(+) and (15)N(16)O(+) from a nitrogen-based ion-pairing reagent interfered with ICP-MS detection of (31)P, an octopole reaction system was investigated to determine whether the polyatomic interferences could be reduced. The results show that addition of He to the cell can benefit analyses by reducing such interferences, but at the expense of reduced sensitivity. The detection limits in the range of 1.0-1.5 mu g L(-1) (expressed as P) was achieved when 50 mu L was injected using He as the collusion gas. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.