Analytical Instrument Documents

The AccuTOF GCv 4G is JEOL's third generation high resolution GC-TOFMS. New, enhanced features of the system include: 1) Recording speed: up to 50 spectra/sec 2) Mass resolution: 8,000 or more (m/z 614, FWHM) 3) Mass accuracy: 1.5 mmu or 4 ppm 4) Mass range: m/z 4 to 5,000 Comprehensive 2D GC (GCxGC) is a chromatographic separations technique that uses 2 columns with different polarities arranged in a series. Featuring higher resolution than conventional capillary GC analysis, it is a powerful tool for the measurement of multiple components in a complex mixture. However, because there is a cryo-trap before the 2nd column, the resulting peaks in the chromatograms are extremely narrow. As a result, the system requires a detector capable of high speed data recording. The TOFMS is an ideal detector for the 2D GC system. In this work, we analyzed aroma oil using a GCxGCHRTOFMS system, in which the AccuTOF GCv 4G was used with a Zoex GCxGC system to examine the spectrum recording speed and mass accuracy.

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC) in combination with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) is a powerful tool for the analysis of complex mixtures. However, new software tools are required to facilitate the interpretation of the rich information content in GCxGC/HRMS data sets. In this work, we analyzed a dust sample collected from an electronics recycling facility by using GCxGC in combination with a new high-resolution time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer. Nontraditional Kendrick Mass Defect (KMD) plots were used to identify halogenated contaminants in an electronics waste sample. Database search results combined with elemental composition determinations from exact-mass data were used to identify (potential) persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

Pesticides have been widely used all over the world. Although the use of pesticides is strictly regulated in many countries, laboratories still monitor their residues due to their toxicity and highly persistent nature. The most common method for pesticides identification is GC/MS with select ion monitoring (SIM). Since most of samples contain many different components, a long GC separation is generally needed when a low-resolution SIM MS is used. This is very time-consuming. Fast GC has been available for several years; however, the combination of fast GC with mass spectrometry had not been commercially available until high acquisition rate time-of-flight mass spectrometry was introduced. Here, we describe a new method by using fast GC/time-of-flight MS to identify 67 pesticides. The high resolution time-of-flight MS always yields high quality library searchable spectrums without compromising the sensitivity. The method is simple, fast, and reliable.

The AccuTOF GCx has high sensitivity, high mass resolution, high mass accuracy, a wide dynamic range and a high speed acquisition rate, all simultaneously. Additionally, JEOL has developed a pesticides exact mass database that consists of 5 ions each for 375 different compounds which means that there are 1,875 total exact masses for multi-residue pesticide analysis. And because the TOF continuously collects the complete m/z region for each mass spectrum, we do not need to setup any SIM or SRM conditions, as is done for QMS and QqQMS systems. Therefore, the TOFMS can be used for both quantitative and qualitative analysis, simultaneously. In this application note, we show a portion of the pesticide database and the advantages of the GC/HR-TOFMS system for the multi-residue pesticide analysis.