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Determination of coplanar and non‐coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls in human serum by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection: electron impact or electron‐capture negative ionization?
Author(s) -
Turci Roberta,
Bruno Franco,
Minoia Claudio
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.1129
Subject(s) - chemistry , electron ionization , detection limit , gas chromatography , mass spectrometry , chromatography , chemical ionization , ionization , fragmentation (computing) , congener , electron capture , analytical chemistry (journal) , electron capture detector , gas chromatography–mass spectrometry , ion , organic chemistry , computer science , operating system
A time‐ and cost‐saving method for the congener‐specific analysis of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in human serum has been developed and validated. After two fast extraction and clean‐up steps, analyses were performed using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry with single ion monitoring (GC/SIM‐MS), either in electron impact (EI) or electron‐capture negative ionization (ECNI) mode. For the determination of dioxin‐like congeners, an improvement in EI‐MS sensitivity is desirable and use of NI is thus preferred. The procedure was validated for 12 dioxin‐like congeners by analyzing spiked samples on three different days and using 13 C 12 ‐labelled analogues as internal standards. When using an NCI source, the limit of quantification was assessed at 0.01 μg/L, except for PCBs #77 and #81, which cannot be reliably detected below 0.05 μg/L. For the lower chlorinated non‐dioxin‐like congeners, NI offers less selectivity because of limited fragmentation. Electron impact ionization and electron‐capture negative ionization mode can therefore be considered to be complementary for the determination of PCB congeners in the general population. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.