Chlorination and ozonation experiments under conditions close to drinking water treatment were carried out with two different tap waters with low DOC content and water from a bog lake with high natural organic matter content. THM formation was low and in the range of 10 μg/L. Derivatization with dinitrophenylhydrazine and HPLC/tandem mass spectrometry were applied to measure carbonyl DBPs by precursor ion scans at m/z 163 for aldehydes and at m/z 182 for dicarbonyls. Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glyoxal, and methylglyoxal were formed by chlorination and ozonation. Ozonation produced the highest levels of carbonyls, in particular in the tap water samples. A strategy for structure suggestion and identification of unknown compounds on the basis of collision-induced dissociation (CID) mass spectra (MS) is given. The resulting structures are carbonyls with additional hydroxy and carboxy groups and serve for choice or synthesis of standard compounds for further identification. The possibilities and limits of compound identification are discussed.

Analysis, derivatization, identification, polar disinfection by-product, tandem mass spectrometry, water treatment
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