Determination of persistent organic pollutants by gas chromatography/laser multiphoton ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

An authentic mixture of polychlorinated biphenyls was measured using a short wide-bore capillary column for the group separation of major components present in an actual sample of Kanechlor. The limits of detection were improved by ca. 2 fold in comparison with those obtained using a conventional capillary column, since the retention time was reduced and the amount of analytes introduced into the mass spectrometer per unit time could be increased. On the other hand, surface-water and sediment samples containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were collected from the river located in the vicinity of a waste water treatment plant. Even acenaphthylene, a minor component of the mixture could be measured for the sediment sample, and the concentrations were determined for several heavy PAHs. As demonstrated, a technique involving laser multiphoton ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry was useful as a sensitive and selective analytical tool for the trace analysis of persistent organic pollutants in an environmental sample.

Keywords

polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) / polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) / laser multiphoton ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MPI/TOF-MS)

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for the program of the Research Institute for East Asia Environments, Kyushu University. This work was also supported by a Grant-in-Aid for the Global COE program, “Science for Future Molecular Systems” from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). This research was also supported by the Steel Industry Foundation for the Advancement of Environmental Protection Technology. The authors wish to thank Yuka Watanabe for technical assistance to this study.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg