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Problem with internal standards using the purge and trap

Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:02 pm
by marie0213
Hello,

I have so much problems with the purge and trap these past months and I can't get help from anyone so I'm taking a chance here. I'm analyzing volatiles in water on a purge and trap (trap #9) connected to a GCMS. I'm using the P&T to add my IS and surrogates and to do my calibration curve. Everything was working fine for 3 years. Now, I can't do a curve from 1 to 20 ppb. I tried changing the trap, manually doing the curve myself, adding the IS myself, injecting using the water method and the soil method because they have a different flow path... Nothing works, I get a parabola as a calibration curve for the less volatile compounds. The other day, I was rushed and only injected a calibration curve without adding IS nor surrogates. Everything was perfect. I did multiple tries and it seems that the IS/surrogates affect my analytes responses... I injected a curve without IS and one with IS one after the other and both were fine.. I'm thinking maybe I have an active site but can't determine where and why it only affects my IS/surrogates.?? Any clues?? Thank you very much for your time. Marie

Re: Problem with internal standards using the purge and trap

Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2017 2:38 am
by mckrause
Have you tried switching IS/surrogate standards?

Re: Problem with internal standards using the purge and trap

Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 3:29 pm
by Steve Reimer
This is a common problem. There are several threads about this on this site.