High pressure liquid chromatograph coupled with Tandem ion trap and time flow mass detector

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The recent research becomes more and more focused to organic trace contaminants and in particular to its effects to health and environment. Trace concentrations of pesticides and pharmaceuticals have been found in all environmental compartments including food products, drinking water and human tissues. Effects have been described at ecosystem level, especially in aquatic organisms, but also already in vertebrates - and human cells. Particularly worrisome are synergistic effects of substances occurring at individual concentrations far less known effect concentrations. However, the effects of such trace substances are often unknown or can not be studied properly so far. Therefore, the newly-founded Department 2 of the BTU has defined the research on environmental behavior and health effects of these compounds as one of its main research topics. The behavior of many trace substances in the environment is not or not completely understood so far. Metabolites and degradation products have been sometimes analyzed, but its role for environmental and health effects are in most cases unclear. This is often caused by lacking efficient analytical methods to follow degradation mechanisms at trace concentrations. The LS "Biotechnology of water treatment", is engaged e.g. in the investigation of the environmental behavior of organic phosphorus compounds. The total herbicide glyphosate is a well known representative of this group, that is currently subject of the public debate. Although such phosphonates are produced in large quantities not only for agricultural, but also for industrial and in particular for household applications, where is only very little known about its behavior in the environment and especially about its degradation. One reason for that lack in knowledge is the complicated analytics, which is only available by LC/MS / MS or LC/ICP-MS and is recently done in only a few laboratories in Germany. The identification of many metabolites fails so far due to the lack of suitable equipment and methods. The LC/MS-IT-TOF instrument combines the high sensitivity of the ion-trap for the first time with the mass accuracy of the time-flow technique. This device offers new possibilities for the identification of trace substances and is an important complement to existing techniques such as GC/MS, LC/MS and NMR and highly efficient methods and procedures for the enrichment of organic compounds. With the help of this new technique, new insights into environmental behavior and effects of trace substances may be obtained, which so far are not or not efficiently analyzed.This new equipment will be used also to further link environmental and health research.