Mass spectrometry (MS) has undoubtedly become the most important technique in modern pesticide residue testing laboratories. First, the implementation of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) transformed the analysis of volatile and semi-volatile pesticides. The second revolution came with the introduction of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), which opened the door to the analysis of more polar pesticides that were previously difficult to analyze, especially in a multiresidue fashion. The advancements in speed and sensitivity of modern GC-MS and LC-MS instruments allow analysis of hundreds of pesticides at very low levels in one analytical run. The analysis is typically targeted using tandem MS with triple quadrupole instruments, which became industry standards in LC-MS but are also popular in GC-MS pesticide analysis. In addition to the targeted approach, laboratories are also considering non-targeted analysis using accurate-mass/high-resolution MS as an intriguing way to expand their analytical scope.  Is the next revolution coming to pesticide testing?

How advanced analytical tools transformed and keep transforming routine pesticide residue testing

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.