Analytische Chemie
Filtern
Dokumenttyp
Sprache
- Englisch (5)
Schlagworte
- Gas chromatography (5) (entfernen)
Organisationseinheit der BAM
The design and operation of an observational study on the profiles of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the breath of 37 lung cancer patients and 23 healthy controls of similar age is outlined. The necessity to quantify each VOC considered as potential disease marker on basis of individual calibration is elaborated and the quality control measures required to maintain reproducibility in breath sampling and subsequent instrumental trace VOC analysis using SPME-GC-MS over a study period of 14 months are described. 24 VOC were quantified on basis of their previously suggested potential as cancer markers. The breath concentration levels of aromatic compounds was expectedly increased in smokers while lung cancer patients displayed significantly increased levels of oxygenated VOC such as aldehydes, 2-butanone and 1-butanol. Though sets of selected oxygenated VOC displayed sensitivities and specificities between 80 and 90% using linear discriminant analysis with leave-one-out cross validation the effective selectivity of the breath VOC approach with regard to cancer detection is clearly limited. Results were discussed against the background of the literature on volatile cancer marker investigations and the prospects to link increased VOC levels in patients’ breath with approaches to employ sniffer dogs. Experiences from this study and the literature suggest that the current state of breath VOC based discrimination between cancer patients and healthy controls is hardly improvable. Observational studies tend to observe significant differences mostly in levels of certain oxygenated VOC but without resolution required for practical application. Any step towards practicable exploitation of VOC profile differences for illness detection would have to solve current restrictions set by the low and variable VOC concentrations. Further challenges are the technical complexity of studies involving breath sampling and possibly the limited capability of current analytical procedures to detect instable marker candidates.
The ISO 16000-6 standard describes a method for the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor and test chamber air by sorbent-based active sampling, thermal desorption and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS). It also gives directions to adapt this methodology to very volatile organic compounds (VVOCs). Indeed, toxicologically based guideline values are being implemented for these compounds and it becomes necessary to measure them. But a comprehensive and robust measurement method is lacking. This work highlights the points that still need to be explored towards the standardisation of a suitable procedure: investigations on sorbent combinations, the suitability of chromatography columns and the use of gaseous standards are required. The biggest challenge remains in the fact that strong sorbents adsorb water together with VVOCs. Water may impair the analysis and the optimal approach to eliminate it is still to be found and integrated into the sampling strategy.
Aroma Sensing of Truffles
(2022)
The aim of this project is to develop a mobile technical device to search for truffles. This way, truffles can be harvested faster, cheaper and more efficiently compared to the current method using dogs.
For this purpose, suitable marker substances in the aroma of ripe truffles were identified using analytical-chemical methods. The collected data was used to create aroma profiles of different truffle species.
The specificity of possible marker substances was confirmed with a truffle dog study. The hypothesis “If trained truffle dogs recognize the substances as supposed truffles in the context of an experiment, they can be regarded as specific” was made. The results show that the truffle aroma is mainly characterized and perceived by dogs by dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide.
For the concentration measurement of these markers in the ambient air, we are currently building our own detector. The Challenge is to get a fast measurement with a very low limit of detection at the same time. The device will resemble a metal detector in terms of shape and handling and be particularly suitable for mobile use.
The R&D cooperation project between the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) and sglux GmbH thus enables truffles to be harvested professionally and systematically. This brings the technical advances that have revolutionized agriculture over the last hundred years to truffle cultivation for the first time.
ISO 14687 defines threshold limits for expectable impurities in hydrogen that is assigned for use in polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. This work describes the establishment of the traceability of some selected impurities by preparation and analysis of reference gases with the lowest possible uncertainty in composition. Primary reference gases were produced by the gravimetric method according to ISO 6142-1 and the analysis was carried out by operating measurement protocols according to ISO 12963 on two customized trace GC analysers.
On-line coupled high performance liquid chromatography-gas chromatography-flame ionisation detection (HPLC-GC-FID) was used to compare the effect of hydrogen, helium and nitrogen as carrier gases on the chromatographic characteristics for the quantification of mineral oil hydrocarbon (MOH) traces in food related matrices. After optimisation of chromatographic parameters nitrogen carrier gas exhibited characteristics equivalent to hydrogen and helium regarding requirements set by current guidelines and standardisation such as linear range, quantification limit and carry over. Though nitrogen expectedly led to greater peak widths, all required separations of standard compounds were sufficient and humps of saturated mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOSH) and aromatic mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOAH) were appropriate to enable quantitation similar to situations where hydrogen or helium had been used. Slightly increased peak widths of individual hump components did not affect shapes and widths of the MOSH and MOAH humps were not significantly affected by the use of nitrogen as carrier gas. Notably, nitrogen carrier gas led to less solvent peak tailing and smaller baseline offset. Overall, nitrogen may be regarded as viable alternative to hydrogen or helium and may even extend the range of quantifiable compounds to highly volatile hydrocarbon eluting directly after the solvent peak.