Determination of Environmentally Relevant Compounds Using Fast GC/TOF-MS

Abstract

The use of GC/MS techniques is crucial to modern environmental trace analysis. However, due to the slow scanning capabilities of common quadrupole detectors, the implementation of fast gas chromatography is restricted. The now evolving Time-of-Flight mass detectors, have fast scanning capabilities and thus can provide the data density necessary to accurately define narrow chromatographic peaks typical for accelerated GC methods.The applications described herein demonstrate how the analysis of acidic pesticides and acidic drugs can be easily accelerated by a factor of 5 to 10 simply by using smaller column dimensions and higher helium flow rates. The quantitative data recorded with a Leco Pegasus II TOF system were comparable to the results obtained with the original routine methods. In addition to the fast acquisition, special software features allow peaks to be found automatically even when they are buried underneath the baseline, thus enabling an additional screening for unknown components besides the target analysis. A spectral deconvolution algorithm separates overlapping mass spectra and thus helps to deal with coeluting signals which can often be observed using fast GC conditions.