PTV-LV-GC/MS/MS as screening and complementary method to HRMS for the monitoring of dioxin levels in food and feed

Recent developments in trapping efficiency inside ion trap mass spectrometer permitted to lower instrument detection limit (IDL). An IDL of 200 fg μl⁻¹ injected with a signal-to-noise ratio of 5:1 for tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) was obtained by gas chromatography coupled to a quadrupole ion storage mass spectrometer in tandem mode (GC/MS/MS). Coupling large volume programmable temperature vaporizer (PTV-LV) injection to GC/MS/MS provides an alternative and complementary method to classical splitless-GC injection connected to high-resolution mass spectrometry (splitless-GC/HRMS) method for dioxin monitoring in food and feed.

An injection volume of 10 μl was found to be the best compromise between the sensitivity requirements and the robustness required for a high throughput method. PTV-LV-GC/MS/MS and Splitless-GC/HRMS were compared by performing analysis on five different matrices such as beef fat, yolk eggs, milk powder, animal feed and serum samples covering a concentration range of two orders of magnitude (i.e. 0.2–25 ng WHO-TEQ kg⁻¹). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out. Fisher tests pointed out that the method effect for all the 2,3,7,8 congeners was not significant, indicating that the null hypothesis (H₀: μ₁=μ₂=…=μ_n) was not rejected. Moreover, the interaction effects between methods and matrices were not significant for most of the 2,3,7,8 congeners. However, three congeners (2,3,7,8-TCDF; 1,2,3,4,7,8-HxCDD and 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDD) were characterized by P-values lower than the significance level (=0.05). In toxic equivalence (TEQ), the study showed that no significant bias was observed between the two methods. Consequently, PTV-LV-GC/MS/MS is an attractive technique and can be used as a cost effective complementary method to HRMS for dioxin levels monitoring in food and feed.     

Structure determination of zinc iodide complexes formed in aqueous solution

Structures of the complexes formed in aqueous solutions between zinc(II) and iodide ions have been determined from large-angle X-ray scattering, Raman and far-IR measurements. The coordination in the hydrated Zn²⁺ hexaaqua ion and the first iodide complex, [ZnI]⁺, is octahedral, but is changed into tetrahedral in the higher complexes, [ZnI₂(H₂O)₂], [ZnI₃(H₂O)]^– and [ZnI₄]^2–. The Zn-I bond length is 2.635(4)Å in the [ZnI₄]^2– ion and slightly shorter, 2.592(6)Å, in the two lower tetrahedral complexes. In the octahedral [ZnI(H₂O)₅]⁺ complex the Zn-I bond length is 2.90(1)Å. The Zn-O bonding distances in the complexes are approximately the same as that in the hydrated Zn²⁺ ion, 2.10(1)Å.     

LC and LC-MS Separation of Peptides on Macrocyclic Glycopeptide Stationary Phases: Diastereomeric Series and Large Peptides

Previous work on the LC separation of peptides had shown that macrocyclic glycopeptide stationary phases to be selective for peptides of five to thirteen amino acids in length. In this work, the selectivity of the teicoplanin stationary phase is compared to that of a C18 stationary phase for seven diastereomeric enkephalin peptides. The teicoplanin stationary phase separated all seven diastereomeric enkephalin peptides in a single chromatographic run. The insertion of d-amino acids into the primary enkephalin sequence produced areas of hydrophobicity that influenced retention order on the C18 stationary phase. However, analogous trends are not observed on the teicoplanin stationary phase, which is more polar and structurally diverse. Optimization of the mobile phase and the use of a step-gradient for the enkephalin separation on the teicoplanin stationary phase is discussed. Also, the selectivity of macrocyclic glycopeptide stationary phases for peptides of 14, 28, 30, and 36 amino acids also is investigated and compared to separation on a C18 stationary phase. A method for eluting peptides with multiple basic amino acids, which tend to be strongly retained on the macrocyclic glycopeptide stationary phases, is presented.     

Electron beam induced purification of dilute off gases from industrial processes and automobile tunnels

The electron beam process has proved to be an efficient method for the removal of inorganic pollutants from flue gas. Since it simulates natural processes which occur in the atmospheric photochemistry, it appeared attractive to investigate the potential of the e-beam process to clean off-gases which contain hydrocarbon and inorganic trace components. Such emissions arise from industrial processes and from automobile tunnels. Commercial solvents were vaporized in air and irradiated with energetic electrons (300 keV). CO, CO₂ and aerosol particles were found as products and were determined quantitatively. The aerosol particles can be collected by a gravel bed filter and can be removed by combustion or biological degradation. From experiments and model calculations it was found that the e-beam process is a very economic tool to remove hydrocarbons from large off-gas volumes at initial concentrations of 50–100 mg C/m³, and that NO_x can be removed very efficiently from tunnel off-gas.     

A Large Volume Injection Procedure for GC-MS Determination of PAHs and PCBs

A simple on-column injection system for large volume of liquid samples for the GC-MS determination of traces of PAHs and PCBs has been investigated. A deactivated fused silica capillary 20 m × 0.53 mm I.D. and 2 meters of an HP5 column (0.53 mm,1 m film thickness) were used as retention gaps. Injection volumes of 80 L for PAHs and 90 L for PCBs, allow determination of 5–50 ng L^–1 PAHs and 11–44 ng L^–1 PCBs in hexane solution with an RSD of < 10%. The method has been used for the determination of PCBs and PAHs in soil sample.     

气相色谱-质谱大体积进样法测定蔬菜、水果中17种农药残留

建立了GC—MS／SIM与大体积进样技术结合测定蔬菜、水果中包括有机磷类、氨基甲酸酯类、有机氯类、菊酯类在内的17种农药的方法。样品经丙酮提取，OASIS HLB固相萃取小柱净化后，采用GC—Ms的选择离子模式和大体积进样技术进行测定，能够使相对检出限降低1～2个数量级。大多数农药的线性范围为0．05～10mg／kg，相关系数为0．9943—0．9996，相对标准偏差为3．5％-10．3％，回收率范围在77％～107％之间．方法能满足果蔬中17种农残限量的的检测要求，具有灵敏、快速、重复性好的特点。     

Monte—Carlo model of the diffusion-limited reaction kinetics in microheterogeneous media. Comparison with the experimental plots of the forward and backward electron phototransfer kinetics on the pore diameter in silica gel

The kinetics of the diffusion-limited decay reaction A + B B was simulated by the Monte—Carlo method on a two-dimensional square lattice with defects presented by randomly distributed sites. The cases were considered where [B] [A] at the random initial distribution (quenching reaction) and [B] = [A] with the initial distribution of the A and B particles on neighboring sites (geminate recombination). The kinetic curves were approximated by the simplest analytical equation [A]/[A]₀ = (1 – )exp[–(kt)^1–h ] + (where k and are constants). The plots of the heterogeneity parameter (h) and time-averaged first-order rate constant vs. concentration of defects (p) or B particles (in the case of quenching) were obtained and compared with similar correlations obtained earlier by the experimental study of the kinetics of forward (quenching reaction) and backward (geminate recombination) electron phototransfer on the surface of different porous silica gels. The experimental plots of h vs. silica gel porosity are in satisfactory agreement with the plots of h vs. p in the model space, if the fraction of volume inaccessible for reactants, calculated from the free silica gel volume, is chosen as the p parameter for silica gel.Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 8, pp. 1536–1541, August, 2004.     

Effect of column diameter on efficiency in capillary supercritical fluid chromatography

Fused silica capillary columns with internal diameters from 100 to 25 μm were coated with SE-54 and evaluated under supercritical fluid chromatographic conditions using carbon dioxide as mobile phase. Experimental results compared well with theoretical predictions. At ten times the optimum mobile phase velocity and for a capacity factor, k of 3, efficiencies of 2300 to 5600 plates m^?1 were obtained for column diameters of 100 to 25 μm, respectively.     

On the solution characterization of an all-aromatic liquid-crystalline copolyester

Solution characterization of the thermotropic liquid–crystalline copolyester synthesized from terephthalic acid, phenyl hydroquinone, and (1-phenylethyl) hydroquinone (2 : 1 : 1) has been performed. Viscometry, size exclusion chromatography, and light scattering have been carried out under the optimal conditions found for measurement: 85°C in a 50/50 mixture by weight of phenol/1,2,4-trichlorobenzene. The absolute weight-average molecular weight from light-scattering measurements served for calibration of indirect methods of charac-terization (e.g., the limiting viscosity number [η] is related to the molecular weight by [η] = 5.10 × 10^?4 M_w^0.72), and the molecular weight per unit chain length, $ \bar M_L * $, from light scattering and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) is found to be 28 Å^?1, consistent with theoretical expectations. The calculated persistence length q is 28 Å. Moreover, the meth-odology of SEC characterization enables the kinetics of solid-state postpolymerization of this liquid-crystalline copolyester to be studied. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Use of small diameter WCOT columns for ultra-high resolution GC/MS

For clinical and environmental analyses utilizing capillary gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), increased sensitivity and speed of analysis are highly desirable. These performance advantages are realized using a WCOT column of 100 μm i.d. as compared to the more conventional 200 μm i.d. capillary columns. The improved sensitivity of capillary direct GC/MS with the 100 μm i.d. column for the confirmation of drugs of abuse will be demonstrated. For environmental analysis, the superior efficiency and resolution of the 100 μm i.d. column can be employed for the separation of priority pollutants. This approach is more amenable to capillary direct GC/MS providing a more effective interface to the mass spectrometer. As a result improved sensitivity and a considerable decrease in analysis time is achieved over that obtained with the larger diameter environmental specialty phase columns.