Preventing decomposition of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole during gas chromatography analysis using programmable temperature vaporization injection

Abstract

2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) is a chemical compound which is widely used in various processes in chemical industry, and it was also detected in environmental samples. Most of the researchers employed liquid chromatography (LC) or gas chromatography (GC) for determination of MBT. When GC was used, derivatization was necessary in order to prevent decomposition of MBT inside of the hot GC inlet. In this study, a new approach for preventing decomposition of MBT using programmable temperature vaporization (PTV) was presented. The sample was injected in a cold inlet (40?C) and the temperature was raised gradually until the analyte was evaporated. Contrary to hot splitless injection, no decomposition of MBT was observed using PTV. Compared to derivatization, PTV requires no chemicals and the duration of analysis is reduced.