Environmental semivolatiles and nonvolatiles analysis by hyphenated spectral techniques.

Environmental sample extracts contain a variety of volatile and nonvolatile organic compounds exhibiting a range of polarities and concentrations. Although gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is the method of choice thus far for such analyses, this technique used alone cannot adequately characterize the volatiles in such samples and is not amenable to environmental nonvolatiles. A more complete characterization of environmental and hazardous waste samples is required to assess the dangers posed to the nation's groundwater by hazardous waste dumps.

A hybrid HRGC/MS/MS method for the characterization of tetrachlorinated-p-dioxins in environmental samples.

A new instrumental method for the characterization of the analyte 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) by selected reaction monitoring (SRM) analysis is investigated. The method uses high-resolution gas chromatography coupled to a hybrid tandem mass spectrometer. The technique was evaluated with regard to four performance parameters: sensitivity, linearity, repeatability and selectivity.