Optimization and validation of headspace sorptive extraction for the analysis of volatile compounds in wine vinegars

Quantification of aroma compounds in wine vinegars is challenging due to the complexity of the matrix and the low concentrations expected. A method for the determination of volatile compounds in wine vinegars employing headspace sorptive extraction-thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HSSE-TD-GC-MS) was developed. A central composite design was used to optimize the sampling condition. The proposed method was successfully validated and low detection and quantification limits was obtained. The application of the proposed methodology allows the determination of 53 compounds in different wine vinegars (red, Sherry). Five of them have been detected in wine vinegars for the first time.     

Full-range analysis of ambient volatile organic compounds by a new trapping method and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

This study investigated the feasibility of analyzing a full range of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from C(3) to C(12) using gas chromatograph mass spectrometry (GC/MS) coupled with thermal desorption. Two columns were used: a PLOT column separated compounds lighter than C(6) and a DB-1 column separated C(6)-C(12) compounds. An innovative heart-cut technique based on the Deans switch was configured to combine the two column outflows at the ends of the columns before entering the MS. To prevent the resolved peaks from re-converging after combining, two techniques were attempted (hold-up vs. back-flush) to achieve the intended "delayed" elution of heavier components. Thus, the resulting chromatogram covering the full range of VOCs is a combination of two separate elutions, with the heavier section following the lighter section. With the hold-up method, band-broadening inevitably occurred for the delayed C(6)-C(7) DB-1 compounds while the light compounds eluted from the PLOT column. This broadening problem resulted in peak tailing that was largely alleviated by adding a re-focusing stage while the DB-1 compounds were back-flushed, and this modified technique is referred to as the back-flush method. With this modification, the separation of the C(6)-C(7) compounds improved dramatically, as revealed by the decrease in peak asymmetry (As) and increase in resolution. Linearity and precision for these peaks also improved, yielding R(2) and RSD values better than 0.9990 and 2.8%, respectively.     

Determination of some phenolic compounds in red wine by RP-HPLC: method development and validation

A methodology employing reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of five phenolic compounds in red wine. The chromatographic separation was carried out in a C(18) column with water acidify with acetic acid (pH 2.6) (solvent A) and 20% solvent A and 80% acetonitrile (solvent B) as the mobile phase. The validation parameters included: selectivity, linearity, range, limits of detection and quantitation, precision and accuracy, using an internal standard. All calibration curves were linear (R(2) > 0.999) within the range, and good precision (RSD < 2.6%) and recovery (80-120%) was obtained for all compounds. This method was applied to quantify phenolics in red wine samples from Santa Catarina State, Brazil, and good separation peaks for phenolic compounds in these wines were observed.     

Recent development in a new method of gas analysis

The new method of gas analysis described previously has been further developed. The use of solid reagents for oxygen and carbon monoxide has made it possible to develop more convenient portable apparatus for determining oxygen and carbon monoxide.     

A new approach to determine method detection limits for compound-specific isotope analysis of volatile organic compounds

Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) has been established as a useful tool in the field of environmental science, in particular in the assessment of contaminated sites. What limits the use of gas chromatography/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/IRMS) is the low sensitivity of the method compared with GC/MS analysis; however, the development of suitable extraction and enrichment techniques for important groundwater contaminants will extend the fields of application for GC/IRMS. So far, purge and trap (P&T) is the most effective, known preconcentration technique for on-line CSIA with the lowest reported method detection limits (MDLs in the low microg/L range). With the goal of improving the sensitivity of a fully automated GC/IRMS analysis method, a commercially available P&T system was modified. The method was evaluated for ten monoaromatic compounds (benzene, toluene, para-xylene, ethylbenzene, propylbenzene, isopropylbenzene, 1,2,3-trimethylbenzene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, fluorobenzene) and ten halogenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (dichloromethane, cis-1,2-dichloroethene, trans-1,2-dichloroethene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, 1,2-dichloroethane, trichloroethene, tetrachlorethene, 1,2-dibromoethane, bromoform). The influence of method parameters, including purge gas flow rates and purge times, on delta13C values of target compounds was evaluated. The P&T method showed good reproducibility, high linearity and small isotopic fractionation. MDLs were determined by consecutive calculation of the delta13C mean values. The last concentration for which the delta13C value was within this iterative interval and for which the standard deviation was lower than +/-0.5 per thousand for triplicate measurements was defined as the MDL. MDLs for monoaromatic compounds between 0.07 and 0.35 microg/L are the lowest values reported so far for continuous-flow isotope ratio measurements using an automated system. MDLs for halogenated hydrocarbons were between 0.76 and 27 microg/L. The environmental applicability of the P&T-GC/IRMS method in the low-microg/L range was demonstrated in a case study on groundwater samples from a former military air field contaminated with VOCs.     

Determination of minor and trace volatile compounds in wine by solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection

A new method for the quantitative determination of important wine odorants has been developed. The wine (50 ml) is extracted in a 200 mg solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge filled with Lichrolut-EN resins from Merck. The elution is carried out with 1.3 ml of dichloromethane. These extracts are directly analyzed by GC-Ion Trap-MS without further concentration. Twenty-seven important wine odorants, such as volatile phenols, vanillin derivatives, aliphatic lactones, nor-isoprenoids, minor esters and terpenols, can be quantitatively determined in a single gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) run. The recoveries in the SPE isolation are in good agreement with those expected from the calculation of breakthrough volumes from solid-liquid distribution coefficients and are higher than 90%, except for guaiacol, vanillin, 2,6-dimethoxyphenol and 4-vinylphenol. In most cases, precision is below 10%. Method linearity is satisfactory, with r2 higher than 0.99 in all cases. The analysis of spiked samples has shown that there is good agreement between the real mass of compound added to the wine and that determined by analysis. In all cases detection limits are below the odor detection threshold of the compounds, and the calibrated interval covers the natural range of occurrence of the compounds in wine.     

Development and evaluation of a calibration gas generator for the analysis of volatile organic compounds in air based on the injection method

The development and operational evaluation of a calibration gas generator for the analysis of volatile or ganic compounds (VOC) in air is described. Details of the construction, as well as of the evaluation of the apparatus are presented here. The performance of the test gas generator is validated both by on-line GC analysis of the calibration gas produced and by off-line analysis of adsorptive samples taken from the generated calibration gas. Both, active and passive sampling have been used, and the results demonstrate the excellent accuracy and precision of the generated test gas atmosphere: For the 11 investigated organic compounds (aromatic and halogenated compounds), the found values were in most cases within 5% of the target value with a reproducibility of better than 3% RSD (as determined by the analysis of the sampled adsorbent tubes). Custom made adsorbent tubes were used for active and passive sampling and in both cases were analysed by thermal-desorption GC. Particularly the combination of passive sampling and thermodesorption-GC analysis offers significant advantages over the commonly used active sampling on activated charcoal, followed by CS2 desorption in terms of avoidance of hazardous solvents, potential for automation and improved detection limits. Both sampling techniques are capable for monitoring VOCs at concentrations and under conditions relevant for workplace monitoring.     

Development and validation of a solid-phase microextraction method for the analysis of volatile organic compounds in groundwater samples

Summary Solid-phase microextraction is a relatively recent extraction technique for sample preparation. It has been used successfully to analyse environmental pollutants in a variety of matrices such as soils, water and air. In this work, a simple and rapid method for the analysis of volatile organic and polar compounds from polluted groundwater samples by SPME coupled with gas chromatography (GC) is described. Different types of fibres were studied and the extraction process was optimised. The fibre that proved to be the best to analyse this kind of samples was CAR-PDMS. The method was validated by analysis of synthetic samples and comparison with headspace—GC. The optimised method was successfully applied to the analysis of ground-water samples.     

Quantitative determination of wine highly volatile sulfur compounds by using automated headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-pulsed flame photometric detection. Critical study and optimization of a new procedure

The quantitative determination of wine volatile sulfur compounds by automated headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) with a carboxen-polydimethylsiloxane (CAR-PDMS) fiber and subsequent gas chromatography-pulsed flame photometric detection (GC-PFPD) has been evaluated. The direct extraction of the sulfur compounds in 5 ml of wine has been found to suffer from matrix effects and short linear ranges, problems which could not be solved by the use of different internal standards or by multiple headspace SPME. These problems were attributed to saturation of the fiber and to competitive effects between analytes, internal standards and other wine volatiles. Another problem was the oxidation of analytes during the procedure. The reduction in sample volume by a factor 50 (0.1 ml diluted with water or brine) brought about a reduction in the amount of sulfur compounds taken in the fiber by a factor just 3.3. Consequently, a new procedure has been proposed. In a sealed vial containing 4.9 ml of saturated NaCl brine, the air is thoroughly displaced with nitrogen, and the wine (0.1 ml) and the internal standards (0.02 ml) are further introduced with a syringe through the vial septum. This sample is extracted at 35 degrees C for 20 min. This procedure makes a satisfactory determination possible of hydrogen sulfide, methanethiol, ethanethiol, dimethyl sulfide, diethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide. The linear dynamic ranges cover the normal ranges of occurrence of these analytes in wine with typical r2 between 0.9823 and 0.9980. Reproducibility in real samples ranges from 10 to 20% and repeatability is better than 10% in most cases. The method accuracy is satisfactory, with errors below 20% for hydrogen sulfide and mostly below 10% for the other compounds. The proposed method has been applied to the analysis of 34 Spanish wines.     

Determination of volatile oak compounds in wine by headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

A headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography (GC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) method was developed to identify and quantify 14 volatile oak compounds in aged red wines. The most important HS-SPME variables were optimised by experimental design technique in order to improved the extraction process. The selected conditions were: 10 mL of sample in 20 mL sealed vials with addition of 30% of sodium chloride (saturated solution), divinylbenzene-carboxen-polydimethylsiloxane (DVB-CAR-PDMS) fibre, 10 min of pre-incubation time, 70 degrees C of temperature and 60 min of extraction time without agitation. The features of the method were established for the studied compounds in terms of linear range, slope and intercept of the calibration graphs, detection and quantification limits and repeatability. For all compounds detection limits were below their threshold levels and repeatability, in terms of relative standard deviation, was good, with values between 3 and 11%. Finally, the method was applied to the analysis of six aged red wines by both internal standard and standard addition calibration methods. The concentrations obtained with both methods were statistically compared.     

Elimination of matrix effects for headspace solid-phase microextraction of important volatile compounds in red wine using a novel coating

In this paper, hydroxy-terminated silicone oil-butyl methacrylate-divinylbenzene (OH-TSO-BMA-DVB) copolymer was first synthesized and used as stationary phase with the aid of γ-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxylsilane (KH-570) as bridge in solid-phase microextraction (SPME) using sol–gel method and cross-linking technique. It has high extraction efficiency for both polar alcohols and fatty acids and nonpolar esters in comparison with commercial PDMS, PDMS-DVB and PA fibers. A simple and sensitive headspace SPME-gas chromatography (HS-SPME-GC) method using the novel fiber was presented for the simultaneous analysis of both polar alcohols and fatty acids and nonpolar esters in wine. To check the matrix effects, various model wine matrices, including distilled water; 11.5% ethanol/water (v/v) solution; a concentrated synthetic wine; a ‘volatile-free’ wine and a real wine were investigated in detail. Matrix effects were compensated for by using internal standard method and selecting the ‘volatile-free’ wine as working standard. The method presented in this study showed satisfactory linearity, precision, detection limits and accuracy. The recoveries obtained ranged from 85.87 to 104.2%, and the relative standard deviation values were below 9%. The results obtained indicated that the present method is a validated and accurate procedure for the simultaneous determination of both polar and nonpolar aroma compounds in wine.     

Integration of cryogenic trap to gas chromatography-sulfur chemiluminescent detection for online analysis of hydrogen gas for volatile sulfur compounds

Hydrogen fuel cells are among the promising energy sources worldwide, which could accomplish cyclic production of energy and avoid the emission of green-house or contaminative byproducts. However, sulfur compounds (SCs) even at trace level (nmol/mol) are usually involved in cell construction and further H₂ production, which would cause degradation of the catalysts and shorten the lifetime of the fuel cells. Moreover, the highly reactive SCs could cause varied species and concentrations of them in complex matrices, so online rather than offline analysis of SCs in H₂ would be preferred. In this context, we developed a new system combining online cryogenic preconcentration of nine SCs and subsequent determination by GC-SCD (sulfur chemiluminescent detector), with the correlation coefficients of the calibration curves higher than 0.999, calculated limits of detection no higher than 0.050 nmol/mol, analytical time around 30 min per sample, and satisfactory precision and accuracy (RSD < 5% and SD < 15%). The analytical performance was much better than or at least comparable to the previously reported and the developed system was successfully applied for real sample analysis.     

Separation and identification of volatile and non-volatile compounds of wine by sorbent extraction and capillary gas chromatography

Sorbent extraction technology was used to separate the volatile and non-volatile components of wine. The extracts were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography.     

Simple and rapid analysis for quantitation of the most important volatile flavor compounds in yogurt by headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

The aim of this experiment is to develop a rapid, simplified, direct gas chromatographic (GC) method for the analysis of volatile flavor compounds in yogurt combining a headspace with constant heating temperature and GC with a mass spectrometric detect ion. Repeatability of the method is assessed. The relative standard deviation for individual flavor compounds range from 3.5% for acetaldehyde to 8.4% for acetone, with a total mean value of 52.4 +/- 2.2 mg/kg for all of the studied aroma components. Recovery for individual flavor compounds range from 63.7% for acetone to 82.4% for acetic acid.     

Improvement in the Iatroscan thin-layer chromatographic-flame ionisation detection analysis of marine lipids. Separation and quantitation of monoacylglycerols and diacylglycerols in standards and natural samples.

Mono- and diacylglycerols are important intermediates in glycerolipid biodegradation and intracellular signalling pathways. A method for mass determination of these lipid classes in marine particles was developed using the Iatroscan, which combines thin layer chromatography (TLC) and flame ionisation detection (FID) techniques. We improved existing protocols by adding two elution steps: hexane-diethyl-ether-formic acid (70:30:0.2, v/v/v) after triacylglycerol and free fatty acid scan, and acetone 100% followed by chloroform-acetone-formic acid (99:1:0.2, v/v/v) after 1,2 diacylglycerols. Diacylglycerol isomers 1,2 and 1,3 were separated from each other, as well as from free sterols in standards and marine lipids from sediment trap particles. Monoacylglycerols were separated from pigments and galactosyl-lipids in the same trap samples and in a rich pigment phytoplankton extract of Dunaliella viridis. Quantitation of each class in samples was performed after calibration with 0.5 to 2 micrograms of standards. As many as 17 lipid classes can be identified and quantified in samples using this proposed six-step development.     

Trace analysis of volatile N-nitroso compounds by combined gas chromatography and thermal energy analysis.

Thermal energy analysis (TEA) has been combined with gas chromatography (GC). The new GC-TEA technique is highly specific to compounds which contain heat labile nitrosyl groups. Because of the specificity of the technique, full use may be made of the TEA sensitivity. Analysis by direct injection of solutions containing less than 1 ng/ml N-nitroso compound is demonstrated.     

Validation of a headspace trap gas chromatography and mass spectrometry method for the quantitative analysis of volatile compounds from degraded rapeseed oil

Due to lipid oxidation, off‐flavors, characterized by a fishy odor, are emitted during the heating of rapeseed oil in a fryer and affect the flavor of rapeseed oil even at low concentrations. Thus, there is a need for analytical methods to identify and quantify these products. To study the headspace composition of degraded rapeseed oil, and more specifically the compounds responsible for the fishy odor, a headspace trap gas chromatography with mass spectrometry method was developed and validated. Six volatile compounds formed during the degradation of rapeseed oil were quantified: 1‐penten‐3‐one, (Z)‐4‐heptenal, hexanal, nonanal, (E,E)‐heptadienal, and (E)‐2‐heptenal. Validation using accuracy profiles allowed us to determine the valid ranges of concentrations for each compound, with acceptance limits of 40% and tolerance limits of 80%. This method was then successfully applied to real samples of degraded oils.     

Development and validation of a multi-residue method for the detection of a wide range of hormonal anabolic compounds in hair using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

The monitoring of anabolic steroid residues in hair is undoubtedly one of the most efficient strategies to demonstrate the long-term administration of these molecules in meat production animals. A multi-residue sample preparation procedure was developed and validated for 28 steroids. A 100 mg hair sample was grinded into powder and extracted at 50 degrees C with methanol. After acidic hydrolysis and extraction with ethyl acetate, phenolsteroids, such as estrogens, resorcyclic acid lactones and stilbens in one hand, are separated from androgens and progestagens in the other hand. Solid phase extractions were performed before applying a specific derivatisation for each compound sub-group. Detection and identification were achieved using gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with acquisition in the selected reaction monitoring mode after electron ionisation. The method was validated according to the 2002/657/EC guideline. Decision limits (CCalpha) for main steroids were in the 0.1-10 microg kg(-1) range.     

Miniaturized membrane-assisted solvent extraction combined with gas chromatography/electron-capture detection applied to the analysis of volatile organic compounds

A new module of membrane-assisted solvent extraction (MASE) with miniaturized membrane bags was applied to the determination of seven volatile organic compounds (VOCs): chloroform, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, tetrachloroethene, 1,1,1,2-tetrachloroethane, 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane with boiling points between 61 and 147 degrees C in aqueous samples. Different from the known procedure the new, shortened membrane bags were filled with 100 microl of an organic solvent. The membrane bags were placed in a 20 ml headspace vial and filled with 15 ml of the aqueous sample. The vial was transferred into an autosampler where it was stirred for a definite time at elevated temperature. After the extraction, 1 microl of the organic extract was transferred into the spilt/splitless injector of a GC system equipped with an electron-capture detector. This work included optimization of the membrane device, the determination of the optimized extraction conditions such as stirring rate, extraction time and the impact of salt addition. The validation of the method involved repeatability, recovery and detection limit studies, followed of its application towards real water samples. The repeatability, expressed as the relative standard deviation of the peak areas of six extractions was below 10%. The detection limits (LODs) were between 5 ng/l (tetrachloroethene) and 50 ng/l (chloroform). Calibration was performed in a range from 5 ng/l to 150 microg/l, since the concentration in the aqueous samples was expected quite various in this concentration range. Five river water samples of Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany were analyzed with miniaturized-MASE and the results were compared with those obtained with Headspace-Analysis. The method can be fully automated and moreover, it allows the simultaneous determination of volatile and semi volatile compounds.