Water pollution screening by large-volume injection of aqueous samples and application to GC/MS analysis of a river Elbe sample

The large-volume sampling of aqueous samples in a programmed temperature vaporizer (PTV) injector was used successfully for the target and non-target analysis of real samples. In this still rarely applied method, e.g., 1 mL of the water sample to be analyzed is slowly injected direct into the PTV. The vaporized water is eliminated through the split vent. The analytes are concentrated onto an adsorbent inside the insert and subsequently thermally desorbed. The capability of the method is demonstrated using a sample from the river Elbe. By means of coupling this method with a mass selective detector in SIM mode (target analysis) the method allows the determination of pollutants in the concentration range up to 0.01 μg/L. Furthermore, PTV enrichment is an effective and time-saving method for non-target analysis in SCAN mode. In a sample from the river Elbe over 20 compounds were identified.