Liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis of 2-nitrofluorene and its derivatives

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) with a nebuliser and a moving belt was used to characterise 2-nitrofluorene, its metabolites and related compounds. In total, 13 different compounds were analysed. The LC-MS interface did not affect the chromatographic performance achieved by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The method allowed determination of the positions of the hydroxyl groups in different hydroxylated 2-acetylaminofluorene derivatives. The LC-MS procedure generated acceptable mass spectra with as small amounts of substance as 65 ng. The dose-response curves from the HPLC-detector and the ion-source in the LC-MS were parallel and linear.