AS244: Methanolic Extraction of Soils by Automated Selected Ion Flow Tube Mass Spectrometry (SIFT-MS)

Soil can become contaminated with benzene, toluene, xylenes and ethylbenzene (BTEX) from a number of source and may pose health and ecological risks. Automated SIFT-MS is a powerful technique for the analysis of volatiles, from a range of different matrices, and benefits from significant throughput gains, versus more conventional chromatographic techniques.

Methanolic extraction followed by GC-MS analysis is a common method for determination of BTEX in soil and this Application Note demonstrates that GC-MS methods, even those with more complex sample preparation requirements, can readily be converted to automated SIFT-MS methods, with all the throughput gains and ease of analysis that this brings.

Working through a standard validation procedure, we demonstrate that robust and reliable routine analytical methods can be developed and validated. Additionally, the data gives confidence to results obtained during real-time analysis, where validation of methods can be more challenging.