Mass spectrometry as an indispensable tool for studies of biodegradation of surfactants

The application of mass spectrometry (MS) to biodegradation studies is a valuable method for determining biodegradation pathways of organic compounds because of its outstanding performance for quantification and structural elucidation. We present biodegradation studies of surfactants utilizing sophisticated MS methods to determine the structure of biotransformation intermediates and final products. We focus on recent developments of instruments, which can be usefully applied in these studies as well as on the emerging sub-group of fluorinated surfactants. Furthermore, we describe recent improvements, which we compare with older techniques. We present fragmentation patterns of important sub-classes of surfactants and discuss different ionization techniques. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.