EPA 8260: Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds by GC-MS
Introduction
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) was established in 1970 with the aim to protect human health and the environment. Since then environmental contamination has been at the forefront of government policy and regulation through US EPA methods for the analysis of environmental pollutants.
EPA 8260 is the standard method for the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in ground water and solid waste by purge and trap (P&T) gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). EPA 8260 is a comprehensive method with more than 100 VOCs in the target compound list. The method is used to identify and quantify VOCs, with a boiling point <200°C, in a variety of solid waste matrices, regardless of water content.
The SCION Single Quad (SQ) mass spectrometer has a unique feature, Compound Based Scanning (CBS), for easy automated setup and optimisation of complex mixed mode methods. CBS makes use of libraries that store all the essential information about a compound such as retention time, time window, qualifier and quantifier ions. Compounds are loaded directly into a method, scan times are optimised with data acquisition and processing tables synchronised. Managing large number of SIM acquisitions is made easy in mixed mode.
This application note describes the analytical operating conditions for analysis of US EPA 8260 including Bromofluorobenzene (BFB) tune parameters and calibration details.
Experimental
The SCION 8500-GC coupled with the SCION 8700 SQ MS and Tekmar Atomx XYZ P&T sample concentrator was used to achieve a highly automated and robust solution for VOC analysis. The system can be visualized in Figure 1. Calibration curves were generated using five multi level calibration samples ranging from 0.5 to 200 ppb (µg/L), with four internal standards held at a constant concentration. The purge and trap and GC-MS parameters are listed in Tables 1 and 2. The purge and trap conditions for EPA 8260 come factory installed on the Atomx.
Table 1. Analytical conditions of the Atom XYZ Purge and Trap.
Table 2. Analytical conditions of the SCION GC-MS.
Results
EPA Method 8260 specifies that the MS must be tuned via analysis of a BFB standard. The SCION SQ was tuned to meet these requirements for spectral resolution of BFB using target ion ratio tuning; built directly into the software. All acceptance criteria was met, thus passing specification as detailed in Table 3.
Table 2. BFB acceptance criteria and obtained values.
Figure 2 details the chromatogram of the 120ppb calibration standard whilst Table 4 details peak identification of the calibration standard along with retention times and linearity values.
Figure 2. Chromatogram of VOCs in 120 ppb calibration standard.
Table 4. Peak identification, retention time and linearity of target compounds.
Conclusions
The Tekmar Atomx XYZ purge and trap sample concentrator coupled with a SCION 8500 GC and SCION 8700 SQ Mass Spectrometer is a total solution for EPA VOC methods. The method is easily setup for both full scan and SIM methods using the unique Mass Spec Work Station software. Excellent repeatability, recovery and linearity of the VOCs demonstrate the excellent performance of the SCION system, under EPA 8260 specifications.
Order Information
AN034v2 – EPA 8260 Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds by GC-MS – Download Application Note
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