Ionization of dichlorophenols for their analysis by capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry.

In order to develop an advanced analytical method using capillary electrophoresis (CE) for non-volatile environmental pollutants such as endocrine disruptors, combination with mass spectrometry (MS) is necessary for their identification. We chose dichlorophenols (DCPs) as test samples because one of their isomers, 2,4-DCP, is suspected to have endocrine disrupting effects. A preliminary study on their separation by CE-MS was performed using a laboratory-made electrospray ionization (ESI) interface.