Determination of trace levels of acetamide, propanamide, and butyramide in surface and drinking water using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after derivatization with 9-xanthydrol.

A sensitive gas chromatographic mass spectrometric (GC-MS) method has been established for the simultaneous determination of acetamide (AA), propanamide (PA), and butyramide (BA) in surface and drinking water based on derivatization with 9-xanthydrol. Deuterated acrylamide was chosen as the internal standard for analyzing the water sample. The derivatization of AA, PA, and BA was performed directly in water and the reaction conditions (10.0-mM 9-xanthydrol, 0.5-M HCl, 20-min reaction time, and ambient temperature) were established. Under these conditions, the detection limit of the analytes was 0.03 μg L(-1), and the interday relative standard deviation was less than 16% at concentrations of 1.0, 5.0 and 10.0 μg L(-1). The proposed GC-MS method enables the reliable analysis of trace AA, PA, and BA in environmental water.