Identification of a new source of interference leached from polypropylene tubes in mass-selective analysis

Yuan-Qing Xia; Shefali Patel; Ray Bakhtiar; Ronald B Franklin; George A Doss

doi:10.1016/j.jasms.2004.11.020

Identification of a new source of interference leached from polypropylene tubes in mass-selective analysis

J Am Soc Mass Spectrom. 2005 Mar;16(3):417-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jasms.2004.11.020.

Authors

Yuan-Qing Xia¹, Shefali Patel, Ray Bakhtiar, Ronald B Franklin, George A Doss

Affiliation

¹ Department of Drug Metabolism, Merck Research Laboratories, Rahway, New Jersey 07065, USA. [email protected]

PMID: 15734336
DOI: 10.1016/j.jasms.2004.11.020

Abstract

An interference leached from polypropylene tubes was identified to be a sulfoxide oxidative product of didodecyl 3,3'-thiodipropionate (DDTDP) that is used to prevent oxidative degradation of synthetic polymers. A sulfone oxidative product of DDTDP leached from the polypropylene tubes was also observed. The interfering compounds were isolated by LC and characterized using time-of-flight mass spectrometry and NMR. Authentic sulfoxide and sulfone products of DDTDP were also prepared by reacting DDTDP with hydrogen peroxide reaching an unequivocal structural assignment. In conclusion, when analytes of interest are solubilized in predominantly organic solvents and kept in polypropylene containers, the possibility of contamination from leached chemicals should be taken into account.