On the Use of In-Source Fragmentation in Ultrahigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography–Electrospray Ionization–High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry for Pesticide Residue Analysis

In this work, a highly efficient pesticide residue screening and quantification method was established using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography–tandem quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry based on in-source fragmentation. Over 400 pesticides were tested, among which 96 pesticides displayed in-source fragmentation. A novel concept of in-source fragment fraction was proposed to evaluate the extent of in-source fragmentation, which was found to be chemical structure- and source parameter-dependent. A high-resolution MS/MS library containing 403 pesticides and 126 fragments was created and was applied for library searching of pesticide residues in vegetables and fruits. The introduction of in-source fragments effectively circumvented misannotation and occurrence of false negatives. The quantification ability for the fragments was validated in terms of recovery, linearity, and limit of quantification and its superiority to the parent pesticides was established. Finally, the proposed method was applied for the analysis of real samples and proficiency test samples, and false negative results were successfully avoided in the analysis.