News from LabRulezGCMS Library - Week 49, 2025
LabRulez: News from LabRulezGCMS Library - Week 49, 2025
Our Library never stops expanding. What are the most recent contributions to LabRulezGCMS Library in the week of 1st December 2025? Check out new documents from the field of the gas phase, especially GC and GC/MS techniques!
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This week we bring you application notes by Agilent Technologies, Shimadzu and Thermo Fisher Scientific and presentation by LECO /MDCW!
1. Agilent Technologies: Analysis of 197 Pesticides in Durian by Agilent PAL 3 Autosampler and 7000E Triple Quadrupole GC/MSD
- Application note
- Full PDF for download
Pesticide residue analysis in food products is critical to ensuring consumer safety and regulatory compliance. Durian (Durio zibethinus), known as the "king of fruits" and widely exported across Southeast Asia, China, and beyond, presents unique analytical challenges due to its sulfur-rich compounds, high fat content, and complex volatile matrix. Comprehensive pesticide analysis in such matrices demands highly sensitive, selective, and robust analytical solutions. The European Union Reference Laboratories (EURL) SANTE/11312/2021 guidelines set rigorous performance criteria for pesticide residue analysis, including strict requirements for method accuracy, precision, and sensitivity.1 Laboratories need to achieve recoveries between 70% to 120%, precision (RSD) below 20%, and quantification limits at or below regulatory maximum residue limits (MRLs), even in complex food matrices such as durian. This application note demonstrates a high-performance workflow for the analysis of 197 pesticides in durian using an Agilent PAL3 Autosampler combined with an Agilent 7000E Triple Quadrupole GC/MSD system. The PAL3 Autosampler provides high-throughput, precise sample handling, while the 7000E GC/MSD offers exceptional sensitivity and reproducibility for trace-level pesticide quantification. Optimized sample preparation and instrumental conditions ensure reliable performance, meeting and exceeding SANTE criteria for method validation.
Experimental
PAL 3 RTC and 7000E GC/TQ parameters
The analysis parameters are shown in Table 1. The target and ISTD compound MRM parameters are listed in Appendix 1. Figure 1 shows a typical MRM chromatogram of targeted pesticides spiked in durian at a concentration of 100 ppb.
Conclusion
This study successfully demonstrated a robust and sensitive method for the quantitative analysis of 197 pesticides in durian using an Agilent PAL3 Autosampler combined with an Agilent 7000E Triple Quadrupole GC/MSD system. The optimized workflow, including sample extraction with an Agilent Bond Elut QuEChERS EN kit followed by cleanup with the Highly Pigmented dSPE kit, provided excellent recovery and precision. All target pesticides showed analysis accuracy between 80% and 120% and RSD values below 10% at a spiked level of 10 ppb. The results confirm the method's suitability for routine high-throughput pesticide quantification in complex matrices such as durian. The use of matrix-matched calibration and matrix‑optimized MRMs further ensured accurate and reproducible quantitation, reinforcing the method's applicability for regulatory and food safety testing.
2. LECO / MDCW: Applying statistical data processing tools for GC×GC differentiation of alternative aviation fuels
- Presentation
- Full PDF for download
The presentation introduces LECO’s long-standing role in separation science and its evolution from elemental analyzers to advanced mass spectrometry platforms. A key emphasis is placed on LECO’s innovations in time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS), including the Pegasus series and the new Pegasus BTX, a benchtop TOFMS offering high sensitivity, rugged detector technology, fast spectral acquisition (1–500 spectra/s), and broad mass range (10–1500 m/z). This technological foundation supports comprehensive GC×GC-MS workflows essential for analyzing chemically complex matrices such as aviation fuels.
A major focus of the talk is on software tools for non-targeted data processing. LECO’s software ecosystem—ChromaTOF, ChromaTOF Tile, and ChromaTOF Sync—enables detailed deconvolution, quantitation, high-resolution spectral analysis, and especially statistical comparison of GC×GC datasets. ChromaTOF Tile uses a chromatographic “tiling” strategy to link datasets and detect differences between sample groups using three statistical metrics: Fisher Ratio, Coefficient of Variation (CoV), and Fold-Change. Each metric serves a different experimental purpose, from comparing traditional vs. synthetic jet fuels (Fisher Ratio) to exploring variability among multiple alternative fuel processes (CoV), or identifying additive components in two-sample comparisons (Fold-Change).
The presentation demonstrates how raw GC×GC-MS data are curated into feature tables, statistically evaluated, and visualized in PCA plots, bar charts, and chromatographic overlays. For example, Fisher Ratio comparison highlights statistically significant chemical differences between conventional Jet A and synthetic fuels, while CoV analysis reveals clustering patterns among diverse synthetic fuel production pathways such as LT-FT SPK, HT-FT SPK, HEFA, SIP, ATJ, and CHJ. These workflows enable analysts to rapidly identify biomarkers or distinguishing compositional features within highly complex hydrocarbon matrices.
Ultimately, the talk demonstrates that choosing the correct statistical processing method can dramatically simplify interpretation of complex GC×GC-MS datasets. LECO’s integrated instrumentation—particularly the Pegasus BTX TOFMS—and software platforms together provide a powerful toolkit for fuel characterization, quality evaluation, and differentiation of emerging alternative aviation fuels. By combining comprehensive chromatography with robust statistical approaches, researchers can gain deeper insights into chemical variability, production signatures, and additive packages in modern aviation fuel technologies.
3. Shimadzu: Analysis of Formic Acid in Acetone Using GC/MS System
- Application note
- Full PDF for download
In research on artificial photosynthesis, the analysis of impurities in chemical products and raw materials has increased the demand for high-sensitivity analysis of formic acid. Previous examples of formic acid analysis using GC-BID and GC-FID (Jetanizer ) have been presented, but in this article high-sensitivity analysis of formic acid using the GCMS-QP2050 (see Fig. 1) isintroduced.
Insert, Column Phosphoric Acid Treatment
Formic acid is known to adsorb onto the injection port and column, making peak detection difficult. However, by performing phosphoric acid treatment on the glass insert and column before measurement, good peaks can be obtained. The procedure for phosphoric acid treatment of the glass insert is shown in Fig. 2, and the procedure for phosphoric acid treatment of the column isshown in Fig. 3.
Conclusion
By performing phosphoric acid treatment on the insert and column, it became possible to analyze formic acid in SIM mode down to 0.2 ppm. Furthermore, good results could be obtained for both linearity and repeatability. Additionally, by analyzing in Scan mode, identification of unknown peaks other than formic acid was also achieved.
4. Thermo Fisher Scientific: Uninterrupted analysis of VOCs according to U.S. EPA Method 8260C using purge and trap and single quadrupole GC-MS technology
- Application note
- Full PDF for download
Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are human-made contaminants used and produced in the processing of, or as, paints, adhesives, petroleum products, pharmaceuticals, and refrigerants. Many of these compounds contaminate our environment and may cause negative health effects in humans and other living beings. Analytical laboratories must monitor a variety of sample types from the environment to ensure the public are not exposed to elevated levels of VOCs. The latest version of applicable method in the United States, U.S. EPA Method 8260C, is applicable when monitoring a variety of solid waste matrices for the presence of VOCs.
To perform U.S. EPA Method 8260C, all method acceptance criteria must be achieved. These criteria include calculating the mean response factor and the relative standard deviation (RSD) of the response factors for target analytes. The RSD should be <20%, with minimum response factors (RF) and MDLs for a wide range of target compounds. The analytical method must produce consistent results and be reproducible from day to day, with a continuing calibration verification (CCV) analyzed every 12 hours while samples are run. As the method covers varying matrices, it is important that the performance criteria are met in all samples of interest. The following evaluation describes the use of the ISQ 7610 GCMS coupled to the Atomx XYZ P&T for U.S. EPA Method 8260C.
Experimental
Instrument control and data processing
Data were acquired, processed, and reported using Chromeleon CDS software, version 7.2. This software can control both the GC-MS system and the Tekmar Atomx XYZ P&T. This enables a single software solution to support the full workflow, simplifying the instrument operation. The optimized method used within this application note is available for download via the Thermo Scientific™ AppsLab library. AppsLab contains all the parameters needed to acquire, process, and report the analytical data for U.S. EPA Method 8260C.2
GC-MS parameters
A TRACE 1610 GC was coupled to the ISQ 7610 MS equipped with the Thermo Scientific™ NeverVent™ vacuum probe interlock (VPI) and an ExtractaBrite™ ion source. Expanded method parameters for the GC-MS system are displayed in Table 3
Conclusion
The combined analytical solution with the TRACE 1610 GC coupled with the ISQ 7610 system and the Atomx XYZ P&T system provides clear advantages for analytical testing laboratories that analyze environmental samples following the U.S. EPA Method 8260C requirements. The modularity of the TRACE 1610 GC as well as the ISQ 7610 VPI and ExtractaBrite ion source allows users to easily service the injection ports and to exchange ionization sources and analytical columns without venting the mass spectrometer, significantly reducing instrument downtime and minimizing sample analysis interruptions. The Atomx XYZ concentrator’s efficient trap cooling design reduces sample cycle time and allows for increased sample throughput. The moisture control system improves water vapor removal thereby reducing peak interference and increasing GC column life span.
The experiments performed clearly demonstrate the suitability of this analytical configuration for the analysis of VOCs in various environmental samples in accordance with U.S. EPA Method 8260C with the following performance parameters as evidence:
- The ISQ 7610 VPI coupled with the Tekmar Atomx XYZ P&T exceeds all the requirements outlined in U.S. EPA Method 8260C for analysis of VOCs in wastewater and solid waste.
- Linearity was achieved with <20%, relative standard deviation for both water and soil calibration curves for the majority of compounds.
- The MDL and precision were assessed using n=7 replicates of a 0.2 ppb water standard and n=7 replicates of a 0.5 ppb soil standard. Calculated MDLs were <0.2ppb and RSDs of calculated results were <10% for most compounds in both the soil and water matrices.
- System robustness was tested by continuously acquiring 240 injections of environmental samples over three days with no user intervention at all. The average %RSD of the calculated concentration was 8.30% with an average compound recovery of 90%.
