First-order derivative resolution of overlapped PAH peaks with common mass spectra in gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Guillermo Quintás; Bernhard Lendl; Agustín Pastor; Miguel de la Guardia

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2007.06.050

First-order derivative resolution of overlapped PAH peaks with common mass spectra in gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Talanta. 2008 Jan 15;74(4):747-52. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2007.06.050. Epub 2007 Jul 25.

Authors

Guillermo Quintás¹, Bernhard Lendl, Agustín Pastor, Miguel de la Guardia

Affiliation

¹ Institute for Chemical Technologies and Analytics, Vienna University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9-164, A-1060 Vienna, Austria. guiquin@alumni.uv.es

PMID: 18371704
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2007.06.050

Abstract

First-order derivative of 15 points smoothed chromatograms of mixtures of benzo(b)fluoranthene (BbF) and benzo(k)fluoranthene (BkF) for the m/z 252 ion obtained using two microscans has been proposed as a simple alternative to the resolution of overlapped chromatographic peaks of these two compounds which have identical mass spectra. The procedure provides limits of detection of 12 and 29ngg(-1) for BbF and BkF, respectively and offers the possibility to use the 250 and 248 ions to confirm the identity of these analytes.