The Use of Low Cost Mass Spectrometers for the Analysis of Organic Micropollutants in Water

Summary

Mass Spectrometry in combination with gas chromatography (GC-MS) has been applied to the analysis of organic compounds in water for over a decade. Initially, because of the high costs involved, only a few central research laboratories possessed such equipment. However, in the last few years, mass spectrometer manufacturers have produced smaller bench-top mass spectrometers at lower prices so that GC-MS facilities have become more widely available. The UK water undertakings have, collectively, considerable experience of the two most commonly available bench-top GC-MS systems — the Finnigan Ion Trap Detector (ITD) and the Hewlett-Packard Mass Selective Detector (MSD). Typical applications of these two systems to the analysis and monitoring of various organics in water will be described, and factors such as ease of use, reliability and the quality of the data produced by the ITD and MSD will be discussed.