Vacuum Ultraviolet Detection of Blood Volatiles

Introduction

Analysis for ethanol and other volatiles in blood has traditionally been performed by Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization detection (GC-FID). This technique has excellent quantitative accuracy, but the flame ionization detector provides no molecular or structural information (apart from the existence of C-C bonds). Structure specific information is helpful in ruling out co-elution and to verify the identity of the chromatographic peak. Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) absorption spectroscopy can provide this sort of informative detection. VUV detectors specifically designed for GC are commercially available and provide important benefits to blood alcohol analysis, such as verification of peak purity, facile deconvolution of coeluting peaks, and calibration based on Beer–Lambert law and molar absorptivity of the analyte. Since molar absorptivity is an inherent constant property of a molecule, calibration is straightforward and stable. This presentation will give an overview of blood alcohol analysis by gas chromatography using VUV detection.