Determination of Triphenylmethane Dye Residues in Water by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-Triple Quadrupole Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry

A method for the analysis of five types of triphenylmethane dye residues in water was developed by using solid phase extraction (SPE) combined with ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS/MS). The water samples were extracted and cleaned with mixed. mode cation exchange solid. phase extraction cartridges (MCX). The UPLC separation was performed on a C18 column with a linear gradient elution program of acetonitrile and 5 mmol/L aqueous ammonium acetate (containing 0.02% formic acid) as mobile phase. Triphenylmethane dye residues were analyzed by mass spectrometry under an electrospray ionization interface (ESI) in positive ion mode with MRM-IDA-EPI mode. The calibration curves of five types of triphenylmethane dyes were linear in the range of 0.02-20 mu g/L, and the correlation coefficients were not less than 0.998. The recoveries at spiked levels of 5, 10 and 20 mu g/L were in the range of 70.9%-101%, and the RSDs were 3.4%-11.9% (n = 6). The limit of detection and quantification were 0.42-2.18 ng/L and 1.68-8.73 ng/L, respectively. The method was performed as sensitive and accurate, and also suitable for simultaneous determination of five types of triphenylmethane dye residues in water.