Enhanced sensitivity & workflow optimization techniques for the analysis of pesticides, antibiotics & other banned substances in water as well as other matrices using triple quadrupole mass spectrometers will be highlighted. Designed for reliable and accurate analysis of water samples, a comprehensive package (EQuan) has been specifically developed to monitor trace levels of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, pharmaceuticals and veterinary products in drinking water. EQuan significantly reduces sample analysis time as it allows environmental samples to be directly injected onto the analytical system followed by immediate LC-MS/MS analysis. Limits Of Detections (LOD) are considerably improved (up to 100 times) with detection limits of 10ppt (parts per trillion) easily achieved.

The new environmental solutions package also features Quantitation-Enhanced Data-Dependent MS/MS (QED-MS/MS) functionality to achieve precise quantification with simultaneous structural confirmation, using an in-built MS/MS library. In addition, the unique enhanced resolution (H-SRM) capabilities of EQuan add to the specificity of samples and can help to significantly improve LOQs (Limits of Quantification).

Achieving low LODs of pesticides, antibiotics and veterinary residues in drinking water is of paramount importance in order to achieve the regulatory levels as stated by US, Japanese and European Environmental and Water directives. These substances pose a significant health threat and, therefore, need to be accurately detected. Traditionally, LC-MS/MS has been used by the environmental industry for the identification and quantification of these residues. However, this methodology typically requires extensive offline sample pre-concentration which can be particularly time consuming and expensive.