Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds in Urine by Purge and Trap-Gas Chromatography -Mass Spectrometry with Isotope Internal Standard

Objective To develop an analytical method for the determination of 12 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine.

Methods After the urine sample being cooled to room temperature, the volume of urine in the introduction bottle was adjusted to 30 mL under nitrogen atmosphere, a defoamer and an isotope internal standard was added successively. After shaking, the bottle was filled with pure water. The content of 12 kinds of volatile organic compounds was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in an ion scanning mode.

Results The recoveries of standard addition at the concentration of 0.184 ng/mL and 0.553 ng/mL were in the range of 76.6%~104.8%, and the RSD degrees of precision were in the range of 1.7%~11.2%. The linearity of the standard curve was good over the range of 0.045 ng/mL to 5.76 ng/mL, and the linear correlation coefficient was greater than 0.995. When the volume of urine sample was 30.00 mL, the detection limit was (0.006~0.15) ng/mL, and the range of determination were (0.010~0.27) ng/mL.

Conclusion The detection limit of this method was low and the method was suitable for the determination of internal VOCs exposure in non-exposed population.