The procedures described in this application note meet the requirements for sample extraction as determined by U.S. EPA Method 3545. This method is applicable to the extraction of water-insoluble or slightly water-soluble volatile and semivolatile compounds in preparation for gas chromatographic or GC/MS measurement. This method is applicable to soils, clays, wastes, and sediments containing 250–12,500 μg/kg of BNA compounds.

This application note describes the analysis of residual solvents in accordance with USP method <467> using the Thermo Scientific™ TRACE™ 1310 GC, the new Thermo Scientific™ TriPlus™ 300 Headspace autosampler, and the Thermo Scientific™ Dionex™ Chromeleon™ chromatography data system (CDS) software. The method details the chromatographic system and analytical conditions to be used and addresses the acceptable limits for each solvent.

The application describes the determination of water pollutants as volatile aromatics and chlorinated hydrocarbons through a dual detector configuration of the Trace1310 GC, using the FID for the quantitation of the aromatic hydrocarbons and a more selective ECD for the quantitation of the halogenated compounds. A double detector configuration allows the simultaneous analysis of both classes of compounds, thanks to a post-column splitting of the effluents to the two detectors. A dedicated Dual Detector Kit has been used to guarantee inertness of the sample path and no dead volumes.

The Thermo Scientific HPLC system is applied for the analysis of basic drugs. The separation is performed on a Thermo Scientific Acclaim 120 C18 column, with UV detection at 220 nm. This application is used as a routine lot qualification test for the Acclaim 120 C18 column stationary phase. Low silanol activity preserves the good peak shape for amitriptyline as the sample concentration decreases (amitriptyline mass for trace A is 1200 ng, for trace B is 400 ng, and for trace C 94 ng).

A Thermo Scientific TRACE 1310 GC-FID coupled to the Thermo Scientific Triplus 300 Headspace Autosampler have been used for the determination of gasoline range organics in water samples. The Gasoline Range Organics (GRO) are markers of possible water contamination due to oil spills and correspond to the range of alkanes from C6 to C10, covering a boiling point range of approximately 60-170°C. According to EPA 5021A, GRO are volatile enough to be effectively removed from environmental samples using an equilibrium headspace procedure.