Determination of musty odorants, 2-methylisoborneol and geosmin, in environmental water by headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Abstract

A simple and sensitive method for the determination of musty odorants, 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) and geosmin (GSM), in environmental water was developed by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. MIB and GSM were separated within 10 min using a DB-1 capillary column and detected in the selective ion monitoring mode. HS-SPME using a polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene fiber provided effective sample enrichment, and was carried out by fiber exposition at 70 °C for 30 min. Using this method, the calibration curves of MIB and GSM were linear in the range of 0–500 pg/mL, with a correlation coefficient above 0.9977 ( n = 24). The detection limits (S/N = 3) of MIB and GSM were 0.9 and 0.6 pg/mL, respectively. This method was successfully applied to the analysis of environmental water samples without interference peaks.