Environmental Pollutants

EC/MS is used successfully for simulating most major reactions that take place in the environmental degradation process. Degradation reactions that have been simulated in an EC reactor are aquatic, photolytic, and microbial conversions including adduct formation (phase II). Reactive intermediates have been generated electrochemically, impossible to extract form environmental samples and useful in the understanding of the metabolic (degradation) pathway. Correlating the persistence of pollutants in the environment with the EC potential that is needed for oxidation is another promising application. EC/MS is a simple, inexpensive and extremely fast approach to get a first insight into the degradation process of pollutants in the environment.

EC/LC/MS of boscalid and its oxidation products (ref: W. Lohmann et al., J Am Soc Mass Spectr, 20 (2009) 138).