Novel techniques for the off-line analysis of liquid process streams by mass spectrometry

Two novel methods for the analysis of simulated liquid process streams are described; static headspace analysis-MS and total vaporization-MS. A variety of experimental parameters have been studied and optimized for the detection of acetone and methyl iodide in mater and acetic acid matrices, respectively. The detection limits (3σ) for the headspace technique at a sample temperature of 71°C are 0.5 and 2 μg ml-1 and for the total vaporization technique are 19 and 1 μg ml-1, respectively, for acetone and methyl iodide. The RSD for concentrations of 10 μg ml-1 of the above analytes are generally less than 6% [n = 6 (static headspace method), n = 10 (total vaporization method)].