Determination of Chloronicotinyl Insecticides in Salad Vegetables by LC/MSD TOF and LC/MSD Trap Application

This work examines the feasibility of liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) time-of-flight (TOF) in conjunction with LC/MSD ion trap to analyze chloronicotinyl insecticides: acetamiprid, imidacloprid, and thiacloprid, in four salad vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and cucumbers. Included in this report are the LC/MSD TOF and LC/MSD Trap spectra of the three chloronicotinyl insecticides, the TOF empirical formula determination, and MS/MS fragmentation and diagnostic ion(s) for the chloronicotinyl insecticides in pure solvent, and in the matrices of all four salad vegetables. Also included is a detailed procedure for sample preparation and recovery of the insecticides from the salad vegetables, spectral quality at minimum detection level (MDL), linearity, and quantitation of the insecticides in pure solvent and in the four vegetable extracts for TOF and Trap. Results of the analysis of real samples from the marketplace for these insecticides in the salad vegetables are also presented.