Performance Demonstration of a New GC-MS Instrument and Novel BFB Tune

Introduction

The US Environmental Protection Agency has published several versions of its method for the analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in drinking water. Currently, the majority of environmental laboratories analyzing these compounds in drinking water for compliance purposes, use either method 524.2 or 524.3. One of the challenges faced by laboratories performing this analysis is the lack of robustness and stability of BFB tuning required by these methods. The stability and sensitivity of the newly released Shimadzu GCMS- QP2020 NX instrument and novel BFB tuning were evaluated in accordance to method EPA 524.2. Results demonstrated that BFB tune met EPA method 524.2 criteria for 30 samples over 15 hrs. To assess sensitivity, Method Detections Limits (MDLs) were calculated at two individual concentrations. At 0.25 μg/L the calculated MDL ranged from 0.020 – 0.190 μg/L, while at 0.50 μg/L the calculated MDL ranged from 0.050 to 0.790 μg/L. Overall, the study results illustrate that the GCMS-QP2020 NX passes the EPA detection limits requirement for method 524.2.

December 1, 2022 GMT