Abstract

The hydrophobic hydrocarbon chain and the polar sulfate group confer surfactant properties and enable them to beused as anionic surfactants. Anionic surfactants (AS) are known for their adverse impact on environment, particularly on aquaticecosystem. In the present study a fast, sensitive and selective method for the determination and subsequent quantification of sixanionic surfactants was developed using hydrophilic interactive liquid chromatography (HILIC) coupled to a electrospray ionization(ESI) mass spectrometer (MS), in the concentration range 15-20 μg/L. The capability of the method was establishedusing regression analysis and ANOVA. The method performance was evaluated by analyzing real time surface water spiked with1-dodecyl hydrogen sulfate at 15 μg/L. Combined efficiency of solid phase extraction and MS detection established recovery of89% in presence of natural matrix. These results point out that HILIC coupled to multistage MS procedures can be a powerfultechnique for environmental applications concerning the screening of polar contaminants.