System Performance Check Standards for Gas Chromatography – Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry in Simultaneous Analysis of Semi-Volatile Compounds

To obtain a performance evaluation method that is required in the simultaneous analysis of semi-volatile organic compounds using a gas chromatograph – quadrupole mass spectrometer (GC-QMS) and an automated identification and quantification system with a database, a set of performance check standards, which can monitor the transition of GC-QMS’s conditions caused by measurements of real samples, have been developed. First, food samples were injected into GC-QMS 160 times as a matrix source ; then the exchange of an injection port liner, cutting off of both edges of capillary column, cleaning and replacement of the ion-source parts have been carried out one by one. During these operations, a solution of 220 kinds of candidate compounds was measured 29 times to obtain the changes of the detected amounts and shifts of the retention times. As a result, the detected amounts of 115 compounds had changed to less than 80% or over than 120% of those in the first analysis ; the retention times of 5 compounds shifted by more than 6 s through a matrix load test. In addition, the detected amounts of 77 compounds decreased to less than 70% of those in the first analysis through the ion-source maintenance operation. From these results, 19 compounds were proposed as a set of suitable compounds for performance check standards to monitor the inertness of the injection port, capillary column and ion-source parts, shifts of the retention times, and drifts of mass spectrometry tuning.