A Long-Lasting, High-Stability Reactor System for Compound-Specific Carbon Isotope Analyses

IF 1.7 3区化学 Q4 BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry Pub Date : 2025-03-15 DOI:10.1002/rcm.10020

Ewerton Santos, Bumsoo Kim, Rafael Tarozo, Sarah McGrath, Marcelo Alexandre, Yongsong Huang

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Abstract

Rationale

Compound-specific carbon isotope analysis is an essential technique in environmental, geobiological, ecological, and forensic research. It involves the online conversion of organic compounds separated by gas chromatography (GC) into carbon dioxide before entering a gas source mass spectrometer for carbon isotopic analysis. However, current oxidation interfaces require frequent maintenance or reactor replacement, reducing efficiency and data quality and increasing costs. This study presents a modified oxidation interface to address these issues.

Methods

Our oxidation reactor system uses nickel and platinum wires as an oxidant with a constant oxygen flow controlled by an electronic pressure controller (EPC). This system eliminates the need for full-scale re-oxidation after initial activation and differs from systems using constant pressure control gauges that result in variable oxygen flow and carrier gas composition. We performed systematic comparisons of carbon isotope measurements for fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) and n-alkanes between our modified system and a commercial reactor system, and betweem systems that use constant pressure and constant flow oxygen supplies.

Results

Our oxidation interface with a constant flow of oxygen significantly enhances the analytical precision and accuracy of carbon isotope values, as demonstrated by a consistent reduction in the standard deviation of δ¹³C values to below 0.3‰. Importantly, our system has undergone over 5000 injections extending over 9 months during our longest analytical cycle, with no maintenance or user intervention needed.

Conclusion

Our novel reactor system with a constant flow supply of auxiliary oxygen gas to the reactor greatly outperforms the conventional reactor system in efficiency, precision, and accuracy. It is virtually maintenance-free and may be dubbed the “forever” reactor, resulting in greatly enhanced analytical efficiency and reduced cost. Our methodology can be implemented on commercial systems with straightforward modifications by users.

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一种用于化合物特定碳同位素分析的持久、高稳定性反应器系统

化合物特异性碳同位素分析在环境、地球生物学、生态学和法医研究中是一项必不可少的技术。它包括在线将气相色谱（GC）分离的有机化合物转化为二氧化碳，然后进入气源质谱仪进行碳同位素分析。然而，目前的氧化接口需要经常维护或更换反应器，从而降低了效率和数据质量，并增加了成本。本研究提出了一种改进的氧化界面来解决这些问题。方法氧化反应器系统采用镍铂丝作为氧化剂，采用电子压力控制器（EPC）控制氧流量恒定。该系统不需要在初始活化后进行全面的再氧化，与使用恒压控制表的系统不同，后者会导致氧气流量和载气成分的变化。我们对脂肪酸甲酯（FAMEs）和正构烷烃的碳同位素测量在我们改进的系统和商业反应器系统之间，以及在使用恒压和恒流氧气供应的系统之间进行了系统比较。结果恒定氧流氧化界面显著提高了碳同位素值的分析精度和准确度，δ13C值的标准差持续降低至0.3‰以下。重要的是，我们的系统在最长的分析周期内进行了超过5000次注射，持续时间超过9个月，无需维护或用户干预。结论采用恒流量辅助氧气供给反应器的新型反应器系统在效率、精密度和准确度上都大大优于传统反应器系统。它实际上是免维护的，可以被称为“永远”的反应器，从而大大提高了分析效率并降低了成本。我们的方法可以在商业系统上实现，用户可以直接修改。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 化学-分析化学

CiteScore

4.10

自引率

5.00%

发文量

219

审稿时长

2.6 months

期刊介绍： Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry is a journal whose aim is the rapid publication of original research results and ideas on all aspects of the science of gas-phase ions; it covers all the associated scientific disciplines. There is no formal limit on paper length ("rapid" is not synonymous with "brief"), but papers should be of a length that is commensurate with the importance and complexity of the results being reported. Contributions may be theoretical or practical in nature; they may deal with methods, techniques and applications, or with the interpretation of results; they may cover any area in science that depends directly on measurements made upon gaseous ions or that is associated with such measurements.