Ultrasensitive determination of polycyclic aromatic compounds with atmospheric-pressure laser ionization as an interface for GC/MS.

Recently we introduced atmospheric pressure laser ionization (APLI) as a complementary ionization method for coupling LC-MS systems (HPLC and CEC), allowing ionization of nonpolar aromatic compounds via near-resonant two-photon excitation. In this paper, we demonstrate that APLI with the same source enclosure as for LC coupling is also suited for hyphenation of GC with atmospheric-pressure ionization mass spectrometry. This technique permits the qualitative and quantitative determination of aromatic compounds in an ultralow concentration range, as we show here with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), alkylated PAHs, and hetero-PAHs as examples. The outstanding sensitivity is demonstrated for chrysene, with a detection limit of 22 amol. Polar functional groups reduce the sensitivity, but after methylation or silylation, the analytes can also be determined very sensitively in complex matrixes, as is shown with 1-hydroxypyrene in urine.

Reaction of Cl atoms with C6F13CH2OH, C6F13CHO, and C3F7CHO.

The Cl atom initiated oxidation of C(6)F(13)CH(2)OH, C(6)F(13)CHO, and C(3)F(7)CHO was investigated at 298 K and 1000 mbar pressure of air in a photoreactor using in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. The rate coefficient for the reaction Cl + C(6)F(13)CH(2)OH (reaction 2) was measured using a relative method: k(2) = (6.5 +/- 0.8) x 10(-13) cm(3) molecule(-1) s(-1). C(6)F(13)CHO was detected as the major primary product, while CO and CF(2)O were found to be the major secondary products. A fitting procedure applied to the concentration-time profiles of C(6)F(13)CHO provided a production yield of (1.0 +/- 0.2) for this aldehyde in reaction 2, and the rate coefficient for the reaction Cl + C(6)F(13)CHO (reaction 4) was k(4) = (2.8 +/- 0.7) x 10(-12) cm(3) molecule(-1) s(-1). A high CO yield observed in the oxidation of C(6)F(13)CH(2)OH, (52 +/- 1)%, is attributed to the Cl atom initiated oxidation of C(6)F(13)CHO. High CO yields, (61 +/- 2)% and (85 +/- 5)%, were also measured in the Cl atom initiated oxidation of C(3)F(7)CHO in air and nitrogen, respectively. These high CO yields suggest the occurrence of a decomposition reaction of the perfluoroacyl, C(6)F(13)CO, and C(3)F(7)CO radicals to form CO which will compete with the combination reaction of these radicals with oxygen to form perfluoroacyl peroxy radicals in the presence of air. The latter radicals C(n)F(2)(n)(+1)CO(O)(2) (n = 6-12), through their reaction with HO(2) radicals, are currently considered as a possible source of persistent perfluorocarboxylic acids which have been detected in the environment. The consequences of the present results would be a reduction of the strength of this potential source of carboxylic acids in the atmosphere.

Atmospheric-pressure laser ionization: a novel ionization method for liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry.

We report on the development of a new laser-ionization (LI) source operating at atmospheric pressure (AP) for liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) applications. APLI is introduced as a powerful addition to existing AP ionization techniques, in particular atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization (APCI), electrospray ionization (ESI), and atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI). Replacing the one-step VUV approach in APPI with step-wise two-photon ionization strongly enhances the selectivity of the ionization process. Furthermore, the photon flux during an ionization event is drastically increased over that of APPI, leading to very low detection limits. In addition, the APLI mechanism generally operates primarily directly on the analyte. This allows for very efficient ionization even of non-polar compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The APLI source was characterized with a MicroMass Q-Tof Ultima II analyzer. Both the effluent of an HPLC column containing a number of PAHs (benzo[a]pyrene, fluoranthene, anthracene, fluorene) and samples from direct syringe injection were analyzed with respect to selectivity and sensitivity of the overall system. The liquid phase was vaporized by a conventional APCI inlet (AP probe) with the corona needle removed. Ionization was performed through selective resonance-enhanced multi-photon ionization schemes using a high-repetition-rate fixed-frequency excimer laser operating at 248 nm. Detection limits well within the low-fmol regime are readily obtained for various aromatic hydrocarbons that exhibit long-lived electronic states at the energy level of the first photon. Only molecular ions are generated at the low laser fluxes employed ( approximately 1 MW/cm(2)). The design and performance of the laser-ionization source are presented along with results of the analysis of aromatic hydrocarbons.