HPLC/atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectroscopy of eight regulated sulfonamides

Reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled with on-line atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry, HPLC,APCI-MS, has been applied to a mixture of eight sulfonamides. In full scan mode, extracted ion chromatograms produced minimum detectable quantities (MDQ) of 0.8 ng on column, for six of the eight regulated sulfonamides investigated. Selected ion monitoring yielded a 50 pg MDQ for sulfamerazine, sulfadiazine and sulfamethazine, while, the other compounds presented higher values. Analysis of supercritical fluid extracts of chicken liver containing sulfadimethoxine were found to be easily detected by HPLC/APCI-MS. In extracts of chicken liver spiked with 25 microg/kg(-1) (25 ppb) of sulfadimethoxine this compound could be detected in selected ion mode, while 100 pg/microl(-1) was detectable in either full scan or single ion modes. The analysis method for extracted sulfadimethoxine also demonstrated good linearity and reproducibility in both single ion and scan mode.