Analysis of fatty acids by mass spectrometry in the selected ion monitoring mode

✍ Scribed by Walter Vetter; Saskia Thurnhofer

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 806 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0956-666X
• DOI: 10.1002/lite.200700062

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

GC/EI‐MS‐SIM (gas chromatography / electron ionisation – mass spectrometry with selected ion monitoring) can be easily applied to the determination of fatty acids as methyl esters (FAME). SIM masses should have a high relative abundance and for this reason we suggest m/z 74 and m/z 87 for saturated and monoenoic fatty acids as well as m/z 79 and m/z 81 for FAME with more than one double bond. The relevance and ratio of these fragment ions along with GC retention times enables a good identification of a FAME represented by a peak detected in the chromatograms. Compared to GC with a flame ionisation detector, this simple method provides a higher selectivity and better sensitivity. It also offers the possibilities of using a wide range of internal standards which enables the individual quantification of FAME instead of the determination of their contributions to the fatty acid pattern.