A study of the applicability of various ionization methods and tandem mass spectrometry in the analyses of triphenyltin compounds

Triphenyltin compounds are widely introduced into the Dutch aquatic environment. To be able to detect them in environmental samples, the ionization methods of electron ionization, chemical ionization, fast atom bombardment, field desorption, thermospray and electrospray have been applied to triphenyltin acetate, chloride, fluoride and hydroxide to find out which of these methods is best suited to obtain molecular weight information on the intact molecules. For this purpose, field desorption is shown to be the most appropriate method giving, without fragmentation, molecular ion peaks, with the exception of triphenyltin hydroxide. The latter compound gives rise to the base peak at m z 716, due to the formation of bis(triphenyltin)oxide. Field desorption tandem mass spectrometry, applied to the molecular ions, has shown that the main decomposition pathway corresponds to the loss of a phenyl radical. Subsequently, sediment and surface water samples from the Dutch inland water, without and with the use of clean-up procedures, have been analyzed by the application of field desorption in combination with tandem mass spectrometry. Within the limits of detection, no signals for the presence of triphenyltin compounds in these environmental samples has been found. Upon spiking these samples with triphenyltin acetate, chloride, fluoride and hydroxide, it has appeared that the covalently bonded non-aromatic substituent of the molecules is exchanged for hydroxyl.