In the present study, HPLC/ESI-MS and stopped-flow HPLC/1H NMR methods were developed and applied to separate and characterize the byproducts arising from TiO2-catalyzed photodegradation of the herbicide iodosulfuron methyl ester (IOME) in aqueous solution under UV irradiation. Prior to identification, irradiated solutions of IOME (200 and 1000 mg·L-1) were concentrated by solid-phase extraction using two cartridges:  Isolute C18 and Isolute ENV+. Analytical separation was achieved on a C18 reversed-phase column with ACN/H2O (HPLC/MS) or ACN/D2O (HPLC/NMR) as mobile phase and a linear gradient with a chromatographic run time of 35 min. The combination of UV and MS data allowed the structural elucidation of more than 20 degradation products, whereas 1H NMR data permitted an unequivocal confirmation of the identities of major products and the differentiation of several positional isomers, in particular, the hydroxylation isomers. The obtained results permitted us to propose a possible degradation scheme and to put in evidence the presence of privileged sites for the attack of OH radicals. This work shows, for the first time, the application of combined HPLC with UV, MS, and NMR detection for complete structural elucidation of photocatalytic degradation products, and it will be of particular value in studies on the elimination of pollutants in aqueous solutions by photocatalysis.
                                    在本研究中,我们开发并应用了HPLC/ESI-MS和停止流动HPLC/1H NMR方法,用于分离和表征在紫外辐射下TiO2催化
除草剂碘磺隆甲酯(IOME)在
水溶液中光降解产生的副产物。在鉴定之前,使用两个固相萃取柱(Isolute C18和Isolute ENV+)对辐照后的IOME溶液(200和1000 mg·L-1)进行浓缩。在C18反相色谱柱上,以ACN/
H2O(HPLC/MS)或ACN/D2O(HPLC/NMR)为流动相,进行线性梯度分析分离,色谱运行时间为35分钟。通过结合UV和MS数据,我们阐明了20多种降解产物的结构,而1H NMR数据则可以明确地确认主要产物的身份,并区分几种位置异构体,特别是羟基化异构体。通过获得的结果,我们提出了一个可能的降解方案,并证明了存在OH自由基攻击的优先位点。这项工作首次展示了将HPLC与UV、MS和NMR检测相结合,用于光催化降解产物的完整结构解析,它将在光催化消除
水溶液中污染物研究中具有特殊价值。