Characterization and determination of analytes were performed on an
Acquity UHPLC system from Waters (Milford, MA, USA) interfaced to a
Xevo TQS triple quadrupole mass spectrometer from Waters (Manchester, UK) equipped with a T-Wave and electrospray ionization interface operated in positive mode (ESI+). Chromatographic separation was achieved using an
Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column (1.7 μm, 50 × 2.1 mm), also from Waters, at a flow rate of 0.3 mL min
−1 and 40 °C. Sample manager was kept at 5 °C. Mobile phase consisted of 5 mM ammonium acetate and 0.01% formic acid in H
2O (phase A) and MeOH (phase B). The gradient of phase B applied was as follows: initial conditions at 10%, linear increase to 90% in 3 min, 90% (3–3.5 min), 10% (3.6–6 min) for equilibration of column.
Cone and desolvation gas (dry nitrogen) flows were set to 250 and 1200 L h
−1 respectively. For operation in MS/MS mode,
argon 99.995% (Praxair, Madrid, Spain) was used as collision gas, kept at 4·10
−3 mbar and 0.15 mL/min in the collision cell. Capillary voltage was 3.0 kV, source and desolvation temperatures were 150 °C and 650 °C, respectively, and dwell times of 0.01 s/transition were selected.
All data were acquired using
MassLynx v4.1 software (Waters, Manchester, UK) and processed using Masslynx and Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet software.
Pitarch-Motellón J., Bijlsma L., Sancho Llopis J.V, & Roig-Navarro A.F. (2021). Isotope pattern deconvolution as a successful alternative to calibration curve for application in wastewater-based epidemiology. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 413(13), 3433-3442.