Suspended trapping gas chromatography I fourier transform mass spectrometry for analysis of complex organic mixtures

The superior sensitivity, dynamic range, and mass measurement accuracy of suspended trapping pulse sequences for gas chromatography combined with Fourier transform mass spectrometry (GC/FTMS) separations of complex organic mixtures is demonstrated. By combining intense ionization conditions with a suspended trapping event prior to detection the working range of the trapped ion cell is increased by 10³. Improved detection limits are shown for the GC/FTMS separation of a peppermint oil, with the suspended trapping total ion chromatogram yielding 28 peaks, compared with 15 with a conventional trapping pulse sequence. A fivefold to fifteenfold improvement in signal-to-noise for suspended trapping measurements is also demonstrated with comparison spectra from separations of an unleaded gasoline sample. Suspended trapping spectra show little mass discrimination when an external ion reservoir is used, and chromatographic peak heights differ from conventional spectra by less than 30% if the initial ion population is within the space charge limit of the cell. Finally, average wide band mass measurement errors for components differing in concentration by several orders of magnitude are improved by a factor of 6 to 20 with suspended trapping compared with conventional trapping. For example, average errors of 8.7 ppm are obtained for a suspended trapping GC/FTMS separation of peppermint oil from a single calibration table in which the analysis is performed in the absence of calibrant.