Determination of Organochlorine Pesticides and Polychlorinated Biphenyls Using GC/MS/MS Operated in the MRM Mode

This poster describes use of a triple quadrupole GC/MS/MS method using Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) mode for sensitive and selective detection and quantitation of Organochlorine pesticides and PCBs. A database with optimized MRM transitions for all of the OCPs and PCBs, including relative retention times for all components, makes method setup possible within minutes. The use of GC/MS/MS MRM mode provides enhanced selectivity, specificity and sensitivity in complex matrices with potential co-eluting interferences.This poster presents all instrument operating conditions and instrument method performance statistics, including method linearity, accuracy, precision, and instrument detection limits for all compounds.Chlorinated pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners (known collectively as Aroclor) are among the most difficult to measure environmental organic compounds.The sensitivity of GCMS has increased dramatically since Method 608 was written. New GCMS technology can be run in selected ion monitoring mode (SIM), greatly increasing the sensitivity. In addition, newer tandem GCMS technology eliminates almost all noise, increasing the sensitivity of the detector 5 - 10 times more than that of SIM.Triple quadrupole mass spectrometry is the linking together of two quadrupoles. Ions are separated in the first quadrupole, fragmented further in a collision cell, and the product ions are separated and analyzed by a second quadrupole. This technique eliminates matrix interferences, making it highly selective and extremely sensitive. Faster scanning analyzers, such as the Shimadzu GCMS-TQ8040, are capable of Scan/MRM and/or Scan/SIM all in a single method.