Determination of nitrosamines and caffeine metabolites in wastewaters using gas chromatography mass spectrometry and ionic liquid stationary phases

Recently, the interest to assess the environmental and human health effects of a wide group of emerging contaminants is growing worldwide. However, one of the main problems associated to their exposure is their determination in environmental matrices. It is hindered by the high polarity of most of these analytes, the poor selectivity obtained with low polarity stationary phases and the high background obtained with polar columns commonly used in GC–MS. Accordingly, this study examines the suitability of ionic liquid (IL) (e.g. SLB-IL59, SLB-IL61, SLB-IL82 and SLB-IL111) as stationary phases for GC–MS and their application to the determination of nitrosamines and caffeine metabolites in wastewater samples. Different chromatographic conditions were evaluated and results discussed in terms of resolution and peak symmetry. The SLB-IL111 column enabled the baseline separation and quantification of 7 nitrosamines in a shorter analysis time compared with cyanopropylphenyl polysiloxane commonly used. On the other hand, the SLB-IL59 column provided the best results for caffeine metabolites.