Determination of airborne isocyanates as di-n-butylamine derivatives using liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry

A method for the determination of isocyanates as di-n-butyl amine (DBA) derivatives using tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and electrospray ionisation (ESI) is presented. Multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) of the protonated molecular ions and corresponding deuterium-labelled d9-DBA derivatives resulted in selective quantifications with correlation coefficients >0.998 for the DBA derivatives of isocyanic acid (ICA), methyl isocyanate (MIC), ethyl isocyanate (EIC), propyl isocyanate (PIC), phenyl isocyanate (PhI), 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), 2,4-, 2,6-toluene diisocyanate (TDI), isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI), 4,4′-methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), 3-ring MDI, 4-ring MDI, HDI-isocyanurate, HDI-diisocyanurate, HDI-biuret and HDI-dibiuret. The instrumental precision for 10 repeated injections of a solution containing 0.1 μg ml−1 of the studied derivatives was <2%. Performing MRM of the product ion [DBA + H]+ (m/z = 130) from the protonated molecular ion resulted in the lowest detection limits, down to 10 amol (for TDI). Quantification of concentrations below 10−6 of the occupational exposure limit (OEL) for TDI during 10 min of air sampling was made possible. In an effort to control the formation of alkali adducts, addition of lithium acetate to the mobile phase and monitoring of lithium adducts was evaluated. Having lithium present in the mobile phase resulted in complete domination of [M + Li]+ adducts, but detection limits for the studied compounds were not improved. Different deuterium-labelled derivatives as internal standards were evaluated. (1) DBA derivatives of deuterium-labelled isocyanates (d4-HDI, d3-2,4-TDI, d3-2,6-TDI and d2-MDI), (2) d9-DBA derivatives of the corresponding isocyanates and (3) d18-DBA derivatives of the corresponding isocyanates. An increase in number of deuterium in the molecule of the internal standard resulted in an increase in instrumental precision and a decrease in correlation within calibration series.