Development and validation of an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry method to quantify benzoic acid and long-chain monocarboxylic acids (C12–C28) in atmospheric aerosols

An ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (with negative ion electrospray ionization) methodology was developed for the simultaneous quantification of benzoic acid and 15 long-chain monocarboxylic acids (MCAs) in ambient aerosols. A fast and quantitative pressurized fluid extraction procedure was optimized using experimental design and the extracts were analyzed without any further clean-up step. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a BEH-C18 column with a mobile phase consisting of 5 mM formic acid in water/acetonitrile (90:10, v/v) and methanol. Excellent precision and accuracies in the MS mass measurements were observed. The method was validated using actual samples spiked with a solution containing either standards or 13C-surrogates. Matrix effects were observed for the C14 MCA only. It was then applied to air particulate reference materials and atmospheric samples collected by a low-volume sampler.