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Determination of anabolic steroids with gas chromatography–ion trap mass spectrometry using hydrogen as carrier gas
Author(s) -
Impens Sandra,
Wasch Katia De,
Brabander Hubert De
Publication year - 2001
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.515
Subject(s) - chemistry , gas chromatography , hydrogen , ion trap , helium , inert gas , mass spectrometry , chromatography , analytical chemistry (journal) , gas chromatography–mass spectrometry , helium gas , gas chromatography ion detector , ion mobility spectrometry , trap (plumbing) , organic chemistry , environmental engineering , engineering
Helium is considered to be the ideal carrier gas for gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in general, and for use with an ion trap in particular. Helium is an inert gas, can be used without special precautions for security and, moreover, it is needed as a damping gas in the trap. A disadvantage of helium is the high viscosity resulting in long GC run times. In this work hydrogen was tested as an alternative carrier gas for GC in performing GC/MS analyses. A hydrogen generator was used as a safe source of hydrogen gas. It is demonstrated that hydrogen can be used as a carrier gas for the gas chromatograph in combination with helium as make‐up gas for the trap. The analysis time was thus shortened and the chromatographic performance was optimized. Although hydrogen has proven useful as a carrier gas in gas chromatography coupled to standard detectors such as ECD or FID, its use is not mentioned extensively in the literature concerning gas chromatography–ion trap mass spectrometry. However, it is worth considering as a possibility because of its chromatographic advantages and its advantageous price when using a hydrogen generator. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.