Application Note 20705
Analysis of Organophosphorus
Pesticides by GC
Anila I. Khan, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Runcorn, UK
Introduction
US EPA 8141B is one of a number of standard analytical
methods used for the determination of organophosphorus
pesticides (OPPs) in aqueous and solid samples by gas
chromatography. OPP can easily degrade in the injector
port, which can lead to poor peak profiles. This causes
activity within the GC inlet port when repeated injections
are made, producing matrix effects. These pesticides can
then interact with the active sites and produce peak tailing
and poor reproducibility of results.
Using a Thermo Scientific deactivated, packed splitless
quartz liner results in a reduction of activity on the
surface of the liner, giving excellent reproducibility when
compared to several other liner formats. The liner is
treated using a proprietary process to reduce any surface
activity. These characteristics lead to highly symmetrical
peak shapes. In addition, deactivated quartz wool helps
in trapping the non-volatile compounds.
Key Words
Organophosphorus pesticides, TraceGOLD TG-5MS column, TRACE 1310,
US EPA Method 8141B, quartz liner
Abstract
This application note demonstrates the use of a deactivated, splitless
quartz liner with single taper and a 5% phenyl polysiloxane phase column
for the separation of an organophosphorus pesticides standard mix. This
was analyzed on a Thermo Scientific™ TRACE™ 1310 GC equipped with a
modular split/splitless (SSL) injector and a flame ionization detector (FID).
This analysis is performed on an ultra-low bleed 5%
phenylpolysiloxane phase GC column. The OPP analysis
was performed in splitless injection mode using a
Thermo Scientific
TM
TraceGOLD
TM
TG-5MS
30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 µm GC column and a
deactivated, packed splitless quartz wool liner for the
TRACE 1310 GC, which is equipped with a modular
plug and play split/splitless (SSL) injector and a flame
ionization detector (FID). This fulfills the requirement of
US EPA Method 8141B for the analysis of the OPPs listed
in Table 1.
