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Understanding the relative performance of SCAN, SIM, PMRM and MRM methods for quantifying polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in crude oil samples
Author(s) -
Han Yuling,
Yin Fang,
John Gerald F.,
Clement T. Prabhakar
Publication year - 2020
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.8765
Subject(s) - chemistry , chromatography , detection limit , mass spectrometry , selected reaction monitoring , gas chromatography–mass spectrometry , crude oil , gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry , analytical chemistry (journal) , tandem mass spectrometry , petroleum engineering , engineering
Rationale Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in oil spill samples are analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (GC/MS/MS) using four different methods: (1) full scan (SCAN), (2) selected ion monitoring (SIM), (3) multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), and (4) pseudo multiple reaction monitoring (PMRM). This study quantifies the relative performance of these methods. Methods Novel experiments were designed to measure the signal‐to‐noise (S/N) ratios of all four methods. This was accomplished by spiking the crude oil with five deuterated PAHs (dPAHs) in two distinct ways: (1) varying the background noise by changing crude oil concentrations before spiking the samples with 1 ng/mL of dPAHs, and (2) varying the signal by spiking dPAHs concentrations of 0.5 and 5 ng/mL into a crude oil sample. Results The MRM method is the most selective and sensitive of the four methods. It also provides the lowest limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ). MRM is the optimal approach for quantifying PAHs in complex petroleum samples containing high levels of background noise. Also, our data show that the PAHs in complex oil spill samples can be quantified by MRM without using any complicated sample preparation steps. Conclusions Based on our experimental data, the relative performance of the four methods used for quantifying PAHs in crude oil samples can be ranked as MRM > PMRM > SIM > SCAN.