Enhancing Sensitivity in Analysis of Semivolatile Organic Compounds with the Agilent 8890/5977C GC/MSD
Abstract
This application note evaluates the performance of an Agilent 8890/5977C gas chromatography/mass selective detector (GC/MSD) in the analysis of semivolatile
organic compounds (SVOCs) at both traditional and enhanced sensitivity levels. The GC/MSD system was initially calibrated with a range of 0.2 to 150 μg/mL with
97% of the 76 evaluated analytes meeting the requirement for average response factor (RF) curve fits. Method modifications to enhance sensitivity were applied
to challenge a lower calibration range of 0.01 to 10 μg/mL. Under these amended conditions, 97% of the tested compounds also met or exceeded the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Method 8270E criteria for average RF fits. These results demonstrated a potential for lower detection of analytes.