Characterization of high molecular weight disinfection byproducts from chlorination of humic substances with/without coagulation pretreatment using UF-SEC-ESI-MS/MS.

Chlorinated disinfection byproducts (DBPs) generated from the reaction of the disinfectant chlorine with naturally occurring humic substances in raw water have been intensively studied over the past three decades, yet only a fraction of the total organic halogen (TOX) formed during chlorination has been chemically identified or even well characterized. The majority of the unknown portion of the TOX is likely attributable to high molecular weight (MW) DBPs (above 500), which may have potential adverse health effects. In this work, typically dosed chlorinated Suwannee River fulvic acid (SRFA) samples with and without coagulation pretreatment were separated and fractionated by using ultrafiltration (UF) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) techniques. The SEC fractions corresponding to the high MW region were concentrated with nitrogen sparging and characterized by negative ion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and ESI-MS/MS. The results demonstrate that the ESI-MS/MS precursor ion scan is an effective tool for the selective detection of the electrospray ionizable chlorine-containing compounds in a complex mixture. Many high MW chlorine-containing DBPs were tentatively found in the UF-SEC fractions of the chlorinated SRFA samples with/without coagulation pretreatment. The SEC-UV chromatograms and SEC-ESI-MS spectra show that coagulation could significantly reduce the formation of high MW chlorinated DBPs.