Development of an International System of Units (SI)-traceable transmission curve reference material to improve the quantitation and comparability of proton-transfer-reaction mass-spectrometry measurements

Abstract

Since its inception more than 2 decades ago, proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) has established itself as a powerful technique for the measurements of a wide range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with high time resolution and low detection limits and without the need for any sample pre-treatment. As this technology has matured and its application become more widespread, there is a growing need for accurate and traceable calibration to ensure measurement comparability. As a result of the large number of VOCs detectable with PTR-MS, it is impractical to have a calibration standard or standards that cover all observable compounds. However, recent work has demonstrated that quantitative measurements of uncalibrated compounds are possible provided that the transmission curve is accurately constrained. To enable this, a novel traceable multi-component gas reference material containing 20 compounds spanning a mass range of 32 to 671 has been developed. The development and compositional evolution of this reference material are described along with an evaluation of its accuracy and stability. This work demonstrates that for the majority of components the accuracy is < 5 % (most < 3 %; < 10 % for hexamethylcyclotrisiloxane (D3-siloxane) and 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene - 1,2,4-TCB) with stabilities of > 2 years (> 1 year for acetonitrile, methanol and perfluorotributylamine - PFTBA).