Agilent Technologies develops three procedures to meet USEPA tuning requirements for analysis of volatile organic compounds in water, and offers free application note on the procedures
Agilent Technologies Europe has announced the development of three procedures to meet the tuning requirements of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) methods for determination of volatile organic compounds in water.
The most widely used methods - 524.2 for drinking water, 8260B for wastewater, and Contract Laboratory Program Statement of Work -- all specify 4-bromofluorobenzene (BFB) tuning of a mass selective detector (MSD) system.
The procedures tune an Agilent 5973 MSD to meet these BFB requirements as follows: Automated BFB tuning adjusts perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA) ion responses so that the BFB tuning ions should meet the most stringent of the USEPA abundance criteria.
Target tuning allows the user to set PFTBA ion targets to optimise BFB ion responses.
This can make it easier to meet BFB tuning criteria while enhancing the response of certain important ions, for example, m/z 173 for bromoform. Standard Autotune adjusts the MSD for maximum sensitivity over the entire mass range.
Then the ion focus is increased manually to meet BFB tuning criteria.
This procedure has routinely resulted in rugged, long lasting BFB tunes on Agilent MSD systems.
All three BFB tuning procedures are described in the application note 'BFB Tuning for Environmental Analysis: Three Ways to Succeed,' publication number 5988-4373EN.
This application note is available without charge from any Agilent sales office or Agilent's website (details above).
