Applications of mass spectrometry to identifying pharmaceutical transformation products in water treatment

Measuring the elimination of an organic pollutant is not sufficient to assess the efficiency of water-treatment techniques, as transformation products, more persistent and/or more hazardous than the parent compounds, may be generated. The identity, the fate and the effects of these compounds are the subjects of an increasing number of studies, in which the development of mass spectrometry (MS)-based methods has resulted in increased sensitivity and selectivity and has been widely applied in the investigation of breakdown products and pathways.This review covers recent applications of MS to identifying pharmaceutical-degradation products formed via the oxidation and chlorination reactions utilized in water treatment. We give an overview of the current status and future prospects of advanced hyphenated MS techniques. We discuss the capabilities, the potential and the limitations of different mass analyzers for some of the most commonly studied pharmaceuticals.