Methodology Advances in the Sensitive Identification and Quantitation of 1,4-Dioxane in Consumer Products by SPME-EI-GC/MS/MS

1,4-Dioxane is an industrial chemical contaminant that is of concern even at trace levels in consumer products. Government jurisdictions are beginning to regulate the amount of 1,4-dioxane allowed in consumer products globally. It has already been banned and deemed unsafe in cosmetics in Canada, and it is a regulated substance in Europe. The allowable concentrations in the United States are expected to vary from state to state, typically at part per billion to low part per million levels.

There have been several methods developed to test for 1,4-dioxane, but none of these methods are adequate to detect 1,4-dioxane in consumer products with complex mixtures and solutions. A method for the high-sensitivity detection of 1-4-Dioxane was developed on the Agilent 8890B/7000 GC/QQQ triple quadrupole in Electron Ionization (EI) mode. The extraction was performed using an Agilent PAL3 autosampler with solid phase microextraction (SPME) tool. The GC was configured with a 30 m DB-8270D column and a 1 m deactivated fused silica column using a purged ultimate union. The advantage of using a tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer is that a selective precursor to product ion transition is generated, minimizing interferences. Analysis time was less than 15 minutes. Calibration curves using 9 levels from 0.1 ng/g (ppb) to 400.0 ng/g (ppb) in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) Electron Ionization with an R2 value of 0.999. Low detection limits, necessary for these pernicious compounds, were also achieved.

Presenter: Ron Honnold (Application Scientist, Agilent Technologies, Inc.)

Ron Honnold, Ph.D. is an Applications Scientist in the Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group (LSAG) at Agilent Technologies; Santa Clara, CA. Ron is an experienced analytical chemist and mass spectrometrist with more than 30 years of experience using state-of-the-art analytical systems. Currently he is responsible for applications and methods development related to GC-MS products, particularly for single quadrupole (GC/MS), triple quadrupole (GC-MS/MS), and quadrupole time of flight (GC-QTOF). Ron is also a member of the Agilent Cannabis Task Group focusing on pesticides, terpenes, and residual solvents.

Presenter: Simon Jones (GC Applications Engineer/Scientist, Agilent Technologies, Inc.)

Simon Jones has over 23 years of GC experience. For the last 15 years, he has been with Agilent as a GC applications engineer/scientist based out of the GC column manufacturing facility in Folsom California. In his roles he has assisted with application development, troubleshooting chromatographic issues, and assisting with instrument configurations. Prior to joining Agilent in 2005, he worked in an analytical lab for the power industry, developing and optimizing testing methodologies for insulating fluids and materials in transformers.