Chemometrics Optimization of Volatile Organic Compounds Analysis in Water by Static Headspace Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Static headspace coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was applied to extraction and analysis of volatile organic compounds in water samples. The effects of various factors affecting on the extraction efficiency including: the extraction temperature, extraction time, salt concentration and stirring speed were carried out by means of a 2 4 full factorial design. It was found that the effects of extraction temperature and salt concentration were significant. Then, a central composite design was performed to optimize the level of these factors. The optimal headspace conditions were achieved when the vials were heated under 88°C and 29% w/w addition of salt. At optimum operating conditions, analytical figures of merit of method such as linearity (0.9962-0.9996), repeatability (1.2-12.13%), detection limits (0.1-4.9 μg.L −1) and linearity dynamic range (10-1000 μg.L −1) were determined. The proposed methods can be used to direct investigation of the presence of Volatile organic compounds in environmental samples without pre-treatment of samples. Finally the optimized method was used to investigate the existence of volatile organic compounds in Babolroud River in the north of Iran.