Quantification of Hydrogen Sulfide and Methanethiol and the Study of Their Scavenging by Biocides of the Isothiazolone Family

Eric Frerot; Alain Bagnoud; Esmeralda Cicchetti

doi:10.1002/cplu.201300234

Quantification of Hydrogen Sulfide and Methanethiol and the Study of Their Scavenging by Biocides of the Isothiazolone Family

Chempluschem. 2014 Jan;79(1):77-82. doi: 10.1002/cplu.201300234. Epub 2013 Oct 11.

Authors

Eric Frerot¹, Alain Bagnoud¹, Esmeralda Cicchetti¹

Affiliation

¹ Analytical Innovation Group, Corporate R&D Division, Firmenich S.A. 1, Route des Jeunes, 1211 Geneva 8 (Switzerland).

PMID: 31986762
DOI: 10.1002/cplu.201300234

Abstract

A sensitive analytical method for the quantification of malodourous hydrogen sulfide (H₂ S) and methanethiol (CH₃ SH) was developed and validated. The method consisted of solid-phase microextraction with concomitant in-fibre derivatisation of the mercaptan using N-ethylmaleimide. The adducts were analysed by GC-MS using a triple quadrupole in the selected reaction monitoring mode. The limits of detection of solutions of H₂ S and CH₃ SH in water were 100 and 10 ng L^-1 , respectively, below their odour-perception thresholds. The analytical method was used to show the scavenging effect of 1,2-benzisothiazol-3(2H)-one (Proxel) and 2-methyl-4-isothiazolinone. The mechanism by which H₂ S and CH₃ SH are trapped with Proxel was studied by ultraperformance liquid chromatography (UPLC)-MS.

Keywords: desulfurization; gas chromatography; mass spectrometry; mercaptan; trace analysis.