The quantification of chlorinated paraffins in environmental samples by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid mass spectrometry.

As high-production-volume chemicals, chlorinated paraffins (CPs) have raised an increasing environmental concern in recent years. However, their accurate analysis and quantification is still a huge challenge due to the high complexity of their technical formulations and the interference from CPs congeners and other polychlorinated products. In this study, a novel method for the simultaneous analysis of short-chain (SC) and medium-chain (MC) CPs in a single injection has been developed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Orbitrap Fusion TMS). Compared with other analytical methods for CPs, this novel method can greatly shorten the measurement time and provides a lower limit of detection. A high resolution of 120,000 FWHM was set to avoid the self-interference of CPs congeners and to eliminate interferences from chlorinated olefins (COs). Accuracies for SCCPs and MCCPs standards were evaluated at 75-103% and 83-118%, respectively. The developed method was further validated by determining CPs in sediment, soil, and indoor dust samples. This novel method gives higher CPs concentrations than those achieved by gas chromatography-electron capture negative ionization low-resolution mass spectrometry (GC-ECNI-LRMS), with factors of 1.1-12.5 for SCCPs and 0.7-2.7 for MCCPs, respectively. Some new CPs, such as CCl and CCl, have been determined in soil samples for the first time, indicating great potential of this novel method for routine CP analysis in various environmental samples.