Hyphenated Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometry

Varieties of Hyphenated Gas Chromatography with Mass Spectrometry... 

VARIETIES OF HYPHENATED GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH MASS SPECTROMETRY... 

Charles 1. Wilkins is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville). His interests inclnde mass spectrometry of polymer and copolymer materials, Fourier transform mass spectrometry, and the development of new methods to improve the utility of analytical mass spectrometry. Past research has dealt with applications of laboratory computers in chemistry, graph theoretic analysis of chemical problems, and research in chemometrics. Investigations of hyphenated analytical systems such as gas chromatography-infrared mass spectrometry and HPLC-NMR have also been of interest. He is the author of more than 235 scientific papers and 21 book chapters, in addition to editing eight books on a variety of chemistry topics. 

The combination of chromatography and mass spectrometry (MS) is a subject that has attracted much interest over the last forty years or so. The combination of gas chromatography (GC) with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was first reported in 1958 and made available commercially in 1967. Since then, it has become increasingly utilized and is probably the most widely used hyphenated or tandem technique, as such combinations are often known. The acceptance of GC-MS as a routine technique has in no small part been due to the fact that interfaces have been available for both packed and capillary columns which allow the vast majority of compounds amenable to separation by gas chromatography to be transferred efficiently to the mass spectrometer. Compounds amenable to analysis by GC need to be both volatile, at the temperatures used to achieve separation, and thermally stable, i.e. the same requirements needed to produce mass spectra from an analyte using either electron (El) or chemical ionization (Cl) (see Chapter 3). In simple terms, therefore, virtually all compounds that pass through a GC column can be ionized and the full analytical capabilities of the mass spectrometer utilized. 

Gas and liquid chromatography directly coupled with atomic spectrometry have been reviewed [178,179], as well as the determination of trace elements by chromatographic methods employing atomic plasma emission spectrometric detection [180]. Sutton et al. [181] have reviewed the use and applications of ICP-MS as a chromatographic and capillary electrophoretic detector, whereas Niessen [182] has briefly reviewed the applications of mass spectrometry to hyphenated techniques. 

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