Analysis of Blood Alcohol by Headspace with Simultaneous GC-FID and MS Detection

Introduction

Determination of Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) has been a standard analytical method in criminal labs for many years. The typical instrument configuration consists of a static headspace instrument for sample introduction, followed by gas chromatography (GC) with two dissimilar capillary columns for separation, and two Flame Ionization Detectors (FIDs) for detection and quantitation. Two sets of data are obtained simultaneously, and the quantitative results from the two FIDs are compared for confirmation of the reported BAC levels.

November 25, 2013 GMT