Optimized liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry approach for the determination of diquat and paraquat herbicides

•MRM transitions from three types of quasi-molecular ions were evaluated.•Certain cross-interference phenomena between diquat and paraquat were demonstrated.•MRM transitions from dications M2+ offer the best selectivity for LC–MS/MS analysis.•Optimized method provides detection limit of 0.1 μg/L for DQ and PQ in drinking water.

Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) determination of quaternary ammonium herbicides diquat (DQ) and paraquat (PQ) can be very challenging due to their complicated chromatographic and mass spectrometric behaviors. Various multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) transitions from radical cations M+ and singly charged cations [M−H]+, have been reported for LC–MS/MS quantitation under different chromatographic and mass spectrometric conditions. However, interference peaks were observed for certain previously reported MRM transitions in our study. Using a Dionex Acclaim® reversed-phase and HILIC mixed-mode LC column, we evaluated the most sensitive MRM transitions from three types of quasi-molecular ions of DQ and PQ, elucidated the cross-interference phenomena, and demonstrated that the rarely mentioned MRM transitions from dications M2+ offered the best selectivity for LC–MS/MS analysis. Experimental parameters, such as IonSpray (IS) voltage, source temperature, declustering potential (DP), column oven temperature, collision energy (CE), acid and salt concentrations in the mobile phases were also optimized and an uncommon electrospray ionization (ESI) capillary voltage of 1000 V achieved the highest sensitivity. Employing the proposed dication transitions 92/84.5 for DQ and 93/171 for PQ, the direct aqueous injection LC–MS/MS method developed was able to provide a method detection limit (MDL) of 0.1 μg/L for the determination of these two herbicides in drinking water.