Approaches to dioxin analysis by HRGC‐HRMS and hybrid HRGC‐MS‐MS

Abstract A hybrid mass spectrometer with an EBQQ configuration was used to investigate two approaches to trace dioxin analysis: high resolution gas chromatography – high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC‐HRMS) and high resolution gas chromatography – mass spectrometry – mass spectrometry (HRGC‐MS‐MS). It is shown that selected ion monitoring (SIM) HRGC‐HRMS exhibits better selectivity for dioxins separated on a cyanopropyl column than is otherwise obtained under medium resolution mass spectrometry (3,000 resolution), while optimization of conditions for HRGC‐MS‐MS allowed the observation of 350 femtograms of the highly toxic 2,3,7,8‐TCDF at a S/N ratio of 5:1. Both methods were applied to environmental samples with good results.