#WatersforWater - LC-MS/MS Drinking Water analysis solution

Answers to the changes in the EU Drinking Water Directive

The world’s fresh water supply is under constant threat from industrial growth, agricultural processes, and municipal waste. Because water is a Human Right, high quality, safe, and enough drinking water is essential for our daily life. The new 2020 EU Drinking Water Directive (DWD, revision directive 98/83/EC of 3 Nov 1998) is aimed to make tap water safer but also reduce the consumption of bottled water by 17% on 2030 horizon.

In view of the revised EU DWD Waters scientists have developed turn-key solution to tackle emerging contaminants and to overcome the challenges related to water analysis like:

• Increase in testing requirements
• Low limit of quantification for special analytes
• Direct injection preferred over sample preparation
• Reliable methods

With a wide range of LC-MS/MS solutions, Waters has the right solution for your Drinking Water analysis challenges in lab. Register to access your essential Drinking Water analysis resource pack and get application notes, scientific articles, webinars & much more.

Haloacidic Acids and Acrylamide testing with LC-MS/MS solutions

Haloacetic acids (HAAs) are disinfection by-products (DBPs) formed during the disinfection process of drinking water, when chlorine reacts with naturally occurring organic and inorganic matter to produce DBPs including HAAs. Acrylamide and its polymer enter drinking water because they are used in the production of flocculants for the clarification of potable water and in the treatment of municipal and industrial effluents.

We developed a single method to address the requirements for acrylamide and the newly regulated haloacidic acids. The direct injection method allows the analysis of 9 haloacidic acids and acrylamide in 8 min and achieves LOQs far below the requirements with 10 µl injection volume. Details and performance tests of this method can be found in the webinar available with the resource kit.

Bromate, Chlorate and Chlorite testing with LC-MS/MS solutions

These parameters belong to the DBPs formed during the water treatment process. When ozone is used to disinfect water intended for human consumption, it reacts with naturally occurring bromide to bromate. The disinfection of chlorine dioxide forms chlorate and chlorite.

In the EU DWD all three are regulated and can be analysed together with perchlorate in a 5 min method on the new Anionic Polar Pesticides Column. For more information please refer to the application note in the resource kit.

PFAS testing with LC-MS/MS solutions

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are found in a range of consumer goods and industrial processes. Due to their ubiquitous nature and possible toxicity they were classified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) within the Stockholm Convention back in 2009. Now they are regulated in the EU DWD with a sum and a total parameter. We developed a direct injection method for 39 PFAS analytes of different groups also including replacement compounds for the most common PFOS and PFOA that reaches lower concentration at the ng/L level. Detailed information is given in the webinar or read in the app note.

Unispray for PFAS

Unispray, special designed MS source shows significant increases to response and S/N values for PFAS compounds, hence improving the overall sensitivity of the system (see application note here).

Additional information on the application as well as on possible sample preparation procedures for PFAS can be found on the Waters PFAS website.

Microcystine LR

Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are found in freshwater environment produce secondary metabolites such as microcystines that are toxic to higher organisms. These water-soluble heptapeptides can enter the drinking water treatment process. The most common MC-LR is therefore regulated and needs to be measured when there is a potential algae bloom in the source water.

A method that was developed to quantify 10 well-known cyanotoxins including MC-LR was developed. Prof. Christine Edwards from Robert Gordan University speaks about the “Challenges of Microcystin Analysis” in a webinar available in the resource kit.

Pesticides

The classic application is a direct injection method with pos-neg-switching for multiresidues. The corresponding LC, MS and processing methods for over 500 pesticides can be downloaded from our Quanpedia Database.

There are groups of pesticides that need a bit more attention, such as acidic herbicides and more polar pesticides or transformation products. The acidic herbicides have been addressed in a dedicated app note. For diquat and paraquat a HILIC method was published as well as a method describing FMOC derivatization for glyphosate, glufosinate and AMPA. Glyphosate & Co. is currently also subject to an evaluation of a direct injection method on the Anionic Polar Pesticide Column.

Fill in the form below to access your essential Drinking Water analysis kit to learn more.

The resource kit includes:

Webinars:

• Blue Thursday series - Episode #1: Determination of Haloacetic Acids and Acrylamide in Drinking Water by Direct Injection Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate a direct injection determination of acrylamide and haloacetic acids in drinking water that exceeds the requirements for the new EU Drinking Water Directive 2020.
• Blue Thursday series - Episode #2: Oxyanions in the water – a tale of 4 analytes in 5 minutes. The purpose of our work is to demonstrate a direct injection method for the determination of Oxyanions: chlorate, perchlorate bromate and chlorite in drinking water that exceeds the requirement for the new EU Drinking Water Directive.
• Blue Thursday series - Episode #3: Per-and Polyfluoronated Alkyl Substances (PFAS) and the Challenges in Development of a Direct Injection Method by UPLC-MS/MS. This session will present a direct injection method utilizing the ACQUITY I-Class and Xevo TQ-XS Waters has developed to explore new and existing techniques and technology to get the edge on sensitivity and robustness for these notoriously tricky compounds.
• Blue Thursday series - Episode #4: Persistent and mobile organic chemicals in the aquatic environment: Occurrence and analytical challenges. This presentation will focus on SFC by (i) highlighting methodical challenges and promising advantages of this technique in comparison to RPLC and (ii) will present several applications of SFC for analysis of PM(T) substances in environmental water samples.
• Blue Thursday series - Episode #5: A direct way to analyze Glyphosate & Co. in drinking water. Discover the new method we have developed utilizing the Anionic Polar Pesticide Column for direct injection analysis of Glyphosate, AMPA and Glufosinate in low ng/L range. The results of the evaluation of the method in terms of linearity, repeatability, accuracy and RSD over different spike levels will be presented.
• On-demand Webinar: The Determination of Legacy and Emerging Perfluorinated Alkyl Substances (PFAS) in Environmental Waters

Application notes:

• Determination of Oxyanions in Drinking Water by Direct Injection Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry
• Analysis of Legacy and Emerging Perfluorinated Alkyl Substances (PFAS) in Environmental Water Samples Using Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) and LC-MS/MS.
• Determination of Haloacetic Acids and Acrylamide in Drinking Water by Direct Injection Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry.
• An Alternative Ionization Technique for Perfluorinated Alkyl Substance (PFAS) Analysis: Evaluating UniSpray for Water and Soil Samples.
• Large Volume Direct Injection Method for the Analysis of Perfluorinated Alkyl Substances (PFAS) in Environmental Water Samples in Accordance with ASTM 7979-17
• Determination of Acidic Herbicides in Water Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry
• Sensitive Analysis of Nodularin and Microcystins of Concern in Drinking Water Using Simplified Sample Preparation
• Analysis of Cyanotoxins, Including Microcystins, in Drinking and Surface Waters by Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry
• Improved Resolution for Paraquat and Diquat: Drinking Water Analysis Using the CORTECS UPLC HILIC Column
• Ultra-Sensitive Detection of Pesticides in Drinking Water with a Simple, Rapid, and High Quality Analysis

Compendium:

• Quanpedia Database: A Compendium of Compounds and Analyses for Rapid and Simple Multi-Residue LC-MS/MS Method Development