GS-MS quantitation analysis of an eight component mixture

CHED 210

Faith N. Wydra, faithwydra@yahoo.com, Lauren Macri, and Donald E. Mencer, mencer@wilkes.edu. Department of Chemistry, Wilkes University, P.O. Box 111, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
Gas chromatography mass spectrometry is a popular analytical method. The most common application of GC-MS is identification of unknown organic compounds whether for industrial quality control or identification of reaction products. Quantitation can also be achieved by using GC-MS. GC-MS was chosen because it has few limitations. It is good for analyzing compounds that have vapor pressures beyond 10-10 torr and the quantitative accuracy is controlled by the analytical method of calibration. In this experiment an eight component mixture containing citronellal, 1,2,3,4-tetrahydronapthalene, 1-bromo-heptane, tert-amyl alcohol, n-pentane, n-octane, methyl cyclohexane, and 1,2 dichloroethane was analyzed via the method of standard additions. For this particular analysis a key issue was achieving complete baseline resolution for two pairs of compounds. By developing a method of regulating oven temperature it was possible to determine percentage of each of the compounds. Other challenges associated with good quantitation using GC-MS will be illustrated in this work.