Evaluation of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography – time-of-flight mass spectrometry for the determination of pesticides in tobacco

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) with fast acquisition time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) was used to analyze a tobacco extract for pesticides. The emphasis was on qualitative characterization of the sample, using automated peak find and spectral deconvolution software to identify 14 pesticides in the extract. Two additional pesticides were located based on manual review of the data. Matrix-matched standards of tobacco extract spiked with 2.5 to 50 ng/mL concentrations of numerous organochlorine and organophosphorus pesticides were used to demonstrate linearity and the GC × GC benefit of eliminating interferences that might contribute to quantification bias.