Mass spectrometry analysis of polychlorinated biphenyls: chemical ionization and selected ion chemical ionization using methane as a reagent gas

In the present paper a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer, coupled with a gas chromatograph, was used to compare the electron impact ionization (EI) and chemical ionization (Cl) technique, in terms of their selectivity in polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) quantitative analysis. The experiments were carried out with a modified Varian SATURN III quadrupole ion-storage mass spectrometer equipped with Varian waveform generator, coupled with a gas chromatograph with DB-5 capillary column. The disadvantage of using EI in the analysis of PCBs congeners is the extensive fragmentation of the molecular ion. The main fragmentation pattern recorded in the EI mass spectra of PCBs was the loss of a chlorine atom from the molecular ion. Therefore the fragment-ion signal overlapped with the molecular-ion cluster of lower mass congener. The fragmentation reactions of PCBs are suppressed if methane is used as a reagent gas for chemical ionization, but fragment ions are also present in the spectrum as an obstruction for quantitative analysis. The most selective method for PCBs quantitative analysis appears to be Cl with mass-selected C2H5+ ions from methane, which results in a mass spectrum with a negligible amount of fragment ions.