Supercritical fluid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry-assisted methodology for rapid enantiomeric analysis of fenbuconazole and its chiral metabolites in fruits, vegetables, cereals, and soil

- SFC-MS/MS was initially developed to analyze fenbuconazole and its metabolites.
- The total six stereoisomers were successfully baseline separated within 4.0 min.
- 0.4 mL/min flow rate of the compensation solvent showed higher MS signal response.

Here, we developed a rapid and robust supercritical fluid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (SFC-MS/MS) method for simultaneous detection of fenbuconazole and its chiral metabolites in fruit, vegetable, cereal, and soil. Baseline separation of six stereoisomers was achieved on an amylose tris-(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate)-coated chiral column in 4.0 min using a mobile phase composed of CO2/ethanol (flow rate of 1.8 mL/min). Ionisation efficiency and sensitivity was optimized with a post-column compensation solvent (0.1% formic acid/methanol). Target analytes were extracted with acetonitrile and purified using dispersive solid phase extraction sorbents. Six stereoisomers at three concentrations (5, 50, and 250 µg/kg) achieved satisfactory recoveries (76.3-104.6%) with RSDs ≤ 11.5% Excellent linearities (R2 ≥ 0.9963) and the limits of quantification (LOQs, 0.13-3.31 μg/kg) were established for all six stereoisomers. Results show that the proposed method is suitable for routine detection of six stereoisomers of fenbuconazole and its chiral metabolites in food and environmental samples.