Simultaneous Determination of 20 Nitrogen-Containing Heterocyclic Compounds in Soil by Supercritical Fluid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

Nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds (NHCs) are common environmental pollutants that need to be monitored due to their high toxicity. Typically, gas or liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometric detection is used for this task. However, many NHCs are highly polar compounds, which can cause difficulties when using these methods. On the other hand, supercritical fluid chromatography is well-established in the analysis of polar compounds and could provide an alternative to conventional techniques. The presented work proposes an approach to the simultaneous determination of 20 NHCs in soils by supercritical fluid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with the limits of quantification in the range 0.08-1.23 mg kg-1. The separation is carried out in gradient mode on a cyanopropyl stationary phase in 6 min. The approach was validated and tested on real objects-peat and sandy soils contaminated with rocket fuel transformation products.