Mass Spectrometric Identification of Aliphatic Amines Using 2-[2-(7H-dibenzo[a,g]-carbazol-7-yl)-ethoxy] Ethyl Chloroformate as Novel Fluorescence Labeling Reagent

Abstract

On a reversed-phase Eclipse XDB C8 ( 150 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 mu m) column, 12 aliphatic amine derivatives were derivatized using 2-[2-(7H-dibenzo[a, g] carbazol-7-yl)-ethoxy] ethyl chloroformate (DBCEC-Cl) as a new pre-column derivatization reagent. The complete baseline resolution was obtained in conjunction with a gradient elution with acetonitrile/H(2)O as mobile phase. Detection was carried out by the fluorescence and online post-column atmospheric pressure chemical ionization(APCI) in positive-ion mode. The maximum excitation and emission wavelengths were at 300 nm and 400 nm, respectively. Identification of aliphatic amine derivatives was carried out by the online post-column Ion trap/mass spectrometry with positive-ion detection mode of APCI-MS. A rapid, accurate method for the determination of free aliphatic amine extracted from soil was proposed. The established method exhibited excellent reproducibility and recovery. Excellent linear responses were observed with the correlation coefficients > 0.9991. The detection limits( at signal-to-noise of 3:1) were 10.1-0.3 fmol.