A review of oxyhalide disinfection by-products determination in water by ion chromatography and ion chromatography-mass spectrometry

•A critical review of IC-MS and its application to inorganic oxyhalide disinfection by-products.•Comparison of reported method performances at the μg/L level.•Future directions for fast, multi-analyte analysis by IC-MS.

This paper is a review of ion chromatographic (IC) separations of inorganic oxyhalide disinfection by-products (DBPs) in water and beverages. The review outlines the chemical mechanisms of formation, regulation of maximum allowable levels, chromatographic column selection and speciation. In addition, this review highlights the application of IC coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) for trace and elemental composition analysis of oxyhalides, along with the analytical considerations associated to enable sensitive analysis. Furthermore, a review of literature concerning IC determination of inorganic oxyhalide DBPs in environmental matrices, including water, published since 2005 is presented, with a focus on MS detection, and a discussion on the relative performance of the methods. Finally some prospective areas for future research, including fast, selective, multi-analyte analysis, for this application are highlighted and discussed.

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