Determination of hydrazine in air by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry combined with precolumn derivatization.

Abstract

In this study, we developed a determination method for hydrazine in the air. Hydrazine was derivatized with p-dimethyl amino benzaldehyde (DBA) to yield p-dimethylaminobenzalazine, which was subjected to liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) analysis. The derivative exhibited good sensitivity in the LC/MS/MS analysis, and its instrument detection limit and instrument quantification limit were 0.003 and 0.008ng/mL, respectively. The air sample was collected using an air sampler equipped with a peristaltic pump at 0.2L/min for 8h. We demonstrated that a silica cartridge impregnated with DBA and 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl) ethylene can collect hydrazine in the air stably. The mean recovery rates in outdoor and indoor locations were 97.6% and 92.4%, respectively. Further, the method detection and quantification limits were 0.1 and 0.4ng/m3, respectively. The proposed method does not require any pretreatment and/or concentration step, enabling high-throughput analyses.