Measurement of Airborne Pesticides by GC/MS with Large-volume Sample Injection System

A large-volume sample injection to capillary column by multi-dimensional column system has been developed for analysis of a low concentration of airborne pesticides. Air was pumped through a cartridge column (SEP-PAK PS-2) for several hours at a flow rate of 1.0L/min. The trapped organics were eluted with 5mL of acetone and the eluate was concentrated to 0.5mL. A 112.51μL of sample injection by autosampler to capillary column could be done. Distortion of peak profiles generated in the precolumn was eliminated by cryo-focussing, and the samples were then successfully introduced to the main-column. As a result, sufficient chromatographic seperation and sensitivity and good linearity between injection volume and MS response of 23 golf course pesticides were obtained with an injection volume of 1 to 100μL.