News from LabRulezGCMS Library - Week 4, 2025
LabRulez: News from LabRulezGCMS Library - Week 4, 2025
Our Library never stops expanding. What are the most recent contributions to LabRulezGCMS Library in the week of 20th January 2025? Check out new documents from the field of the gas phase, especially GC and GC/MS techniques!
👉 SEARCH THE LARGEST REPOSITORY OF DOCUMENTS ABOUT GCMS AND RELATED TECHNIQUES
👉 Need info about different analytical techniques? Peek into LabRulezLCMS or LabRulezICPMS libraries.
This week we bring you applications and other documents by Shimadzu, Agilent Technologies and Thermo Fisher Scientific!
1. Shimadzu Corporation: Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in Water Using Trap-Headspace-GCMS in Accordance with US EPA Method 8260D Criteria
- Application note
- Full PDF for download
User Benefits
- Using trap-headspace-GCMS as an alternative technique to purge-and-trap with GCMS in accordance with US EPA Method 8260D criteria for the analysis of VOCs in water matrix.
- Capability of analyzing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at very low limit of quantitation, as low as 0.5 ng/mL.
Introduction
According to United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), volatiles organic compounds (VOCs) are defined as compounds with high vapor pressure that can easily evaporate into gases. Improper dumping of waste or industrial leachates contaminates underground water. This contaminated water exposes humans to VOCs in their daily lives. Each VOC poses different exposure risk based on its individual constituents. To protect human health and the environment, the US EPA developed Method 8260D1) to identify and quantify VOCs in water using single quadrupole GCMS.
Purge-and-trap is a common sampling technique for this application. However, in this study, Shimadzu’s Trap-Headspace system is utilized as an alternative sampling technique and is evaluated against EPA 8260D criteria. VOCs sampled from the headspace are concentrated in a trap before being injected into the GC, providing high sensitivity in the analysis. The headspace system, HS-20 NX (Trap Model), also features heated and inert sample lines with a short transfer line to suppress analytes adsorption. In this application news, the HS-20 NX (Trap Model) is coupled with Shimadzu GCMS-QP2020 NX (Fig. 1) to achieve high sensitivity in VOCs in water analysis.
Conclusion
The analysis results unequivocally validate the concept of using trap-headspace system as a viable pretreatment method for further exploration and application for the US EPA Method 8260D.
2. Agilent Technologies: Analysis of Sulfides, Formaldehyde, and Organic Halides in High-Purity Hydrogen for Fuel Cell Vehicles
- Application note
- Full PDF for download
- Using an Agilent 8890 GC/8355 SCD/5977 MSD System
Abstract
This application note describes a robust analytical procedure for the detection of sulfides, formaldehyde, and organic halides in hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. This analysis was executed using an Agilent 8890 gas chromatography (GC) system equipped with an Agilent 8355 sulfur chemiluminescence detector (SCD) and an Agilent 5977 mass spectrometer detector (MSD). Samples were preconcentrated using a thermal desorption system, followed by separation on an Agilent J&W DB-Sulfur SCD column. A purged two-way splitter was used to split the sample at a 3:1 ratio onto the SCD and MSD. This flexible configuration demonstrated excellent performance for these three categories of compounds. The correlation coefficients for all target compounds exceeded 0.9971, with reproducibility results varying between 0.3% and 7.9%. The detection limits for sulfides, formaldehyde, and organic halides were 0.01, 0.1, and 0.5 nmol/mol, respectively.
Introduction
Contrasted with traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) that use hydrogen as an energy source present many advantages. These advantages include superior conversion efficiency and zero emissions, thus being esteemed as another groundbreaking revolution in the automobile industry.1 FCVs deploy proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), transforming chemical energy into electrical energy through the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen facilitated by a catalyst. The purity of hydrogen fundamentally determines the battery performance and lifespan. Hydrogen derived from fossil fuels, for example, referred to as grey hydrogen, is a substantial source. Grey hydrogen can include impurities, such as sulfides, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia, light hydrocarbons, formaldehyde, formic acid, and inert gases originating from the raw materials or the chemical reaction process.2 Other colors of hydrogen from different sources may include various combinations of impurities as well. These impurities are crucial elements affecting the durability of the fuel cell. Sulfides are severe catalyst poisons, causing irreversible degradation of fuel cell performance even at part per trillion (ppt) levels. Both CO and CO2 impurities in the hydrogen fuel can cause fuel cell performance degradation, with CO being more severe. Formaldehyde, an intermediate product in the process of hydrogen production from natural gas or methanol, has a poisoning mechanism like CO, but is more harmful. Trace amounts of ammonia can decrease the mass transfer ability of the electrolyte membrane, leading to irreversible degradation of the battery performance. Halides also irreversibly affect the performance of hydrogen fuel cells. Inert impurities in hydrogen (such as He, Ar, N2) do not poison the fuel cell but dilute the hydrogen fuel, reducing the cell potential and leading to power loss.
To ensure the long-term stable operation of hydrogen fuel cells, various organizations have established quality standards for hydrogen used in FCVs. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in the United States have established specific standards for hydrogen used in PEMFCs, namely ISO 14687-20193 and SAE J2719-2015.4 China has also established GB/T 37244-20185 to regulate the quality of hydrogen products. These standards consistently specify limits for certain impurities in hydrogen, such as sulfides not exceeding 0.004 μmol/mol, formaldehyde not exceeding 0.01 μmol/mol, and total halides not exceeding 0.05 μmol/mol. The GB/T 44243-20246 method details the determination of sulfide, formaldehyde, and organic halides in hydrogen for FCVs, gives reference instrument configurations, and also presents performance results.
In accordance with those standards, this study has established a comprehensive analytical method for multiple key trace impurities in hydrogen for FCVs. An analytical platform has been designed for seven sulfides, formaldehyde, and eight organic halides. Sulfides are detected using a GC/SCD, while formaldehyde and organic halides are detected using a GC/MSD. The detection limits of all compounds in this study fully met the requirements for hydrogen quality control described in ISO 14687-2019, SAE J2719-2015, and GB/T 37244-2018 methods.
3. Thermo Fisher Scientific: Gas chromatography consumables ordering guide
Proven consumables for optimum system performance.
Select the right GC consumable for your GC system
Optimize your gas chromatography (GC) system’s performance by selecting the proper GC consumables. Reference the compatibility and recommended use when ordering your consumables for the following systems:
- Thermo Scientific™ TRACE™ 1300 and TRACE™ 1600 Series Gas Chromatographs
- Thermo Scientific™ AI/AS 1310 and AI/AS 1610 Liquid Autosamplers
- Thermo Scientific™ TriPlus™ RSH and TriPlus™ RSH SMART Autosamplers
- Thermo Scientific™ TriPlus™ 500 Headspace Autosampler
Contents
- GC syringes and SPME arrows and fibers
- AI/AS 1310 and AI/AS 1610 liquid autosamplers
- TriPlus RSH and TriPlus RSH SMART autosamplers
- Injection ports
- iConnect Split/Splitless (SSL) injector module
- iConnect Programmable Temperature Vaporizer (PTV) injector module
- Mass spectrometer transfer line connections
- Gas management
- GC columns
- GC column connectors
- Sample handling
