Determination of organic acids in ground water by liquid chromatography atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry

Current methods of determining organic acids in ground water are labor-intensive, time-consuming and require a large volume of sample (100 milliliter to 1.0 liter). This paper reports a new method developed to determine aliphatic, alicyclic, and aromatic acids in ground water using liquid chromatography/atmospheric pressure chemical ionization/mass spectrometry (LC/APCI/MS). This method was shown to be fast (less than 1 hour), effective, and reproducible, requiring only 1.0 mL of ground-water sample. Ground water was pH-adjusted, filtered through 0.45 mu m filters and directly injected into the LC. A binary solvent system consisting of 40 mM of aqueous ammonium acetate and methanol and a C18 column were used for chromatographical separation. The APCI was operated under negative ionization mode. Selected ion monitoring (SIM) was used for detection and quantitation of the analytes. This method was applied to the analysis of organic acids in ground-water samples collected from an aquifer contaminated with JP-4 fuel hydrocarbons at Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, Michigan. Aromatic acids identified in the contaminated ground water include o-, m-toluic acids (2- and 3-methylbenzoic acids), 2,6-dimethylbenzoic acid, 2,3,5- and 2,4,6-trimethylbenzoic acids and two additional trimethylbenzoic acids with unknown location of methylation. The detection of aromatic acids in groundwater from the KC-135 site provided evidence for in situ microbial degradation of hydrocarbons occurring in the aquifer.