Determination of Nitrogenous Disinfection Byproducts Chloroacetamides in Drinking Water by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

A new method for the determination of nitrogenous disinfection byproducts chloroacetamides (CAcAms) in drinking water by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is described. In the method, the effects of different detecting instrument (GC/ECD and GC/MS) and sample pretreatment were investigated. Direct liquid-liquid extraction-GC/MS method was superior to acid-catalyzed hydrolysis + GC/ECD according to recovery comparison, and extraction effect of ethyl acetate (ETAC) excels methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE). Good relativeity (r > 0.9995) was obtained when the linear range was 10 - 1000 mu g/L. The recoveries of CAcAms were 82.0% - 111.9%. The relative standard deviations were less than 10.0%. The determination limit is less than 1 mu g/L. The advantage of this method is simple, rapid and sensitive.