Direct compound-specific stable chlorine isotope analysis of organic compounds with quadrupole GC/MS using standard isotope bracketing.

A method has been developed for the direct determination of the stable chlorine isotope composition (delta(37)Cl) of organochlorines that eliminates sample preparation, achieves precision comparable to earlier techniques while improving the sensitivity, and makes use of benchtop gas chromatography-quadrupole mass spectrometry instruments (GCqMS). The method is based on the use of multiple injections (n = 8-10) of the sample, bracketed by a molecularly identical isotopic standard with known delta(37)Cl, determined using off-line thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS). Mass traces of two isotopologues differing by one chlorine isotope were used to calculate delta(37)Cl values. Optimization of mass spectrometry and peak integration parameters as well as method validation was achieved using tetrachloroethene (PCE), p,p'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and pentachlorophenol (PCP), spanning a delta(37)Cl range of -5.5 to +3.2 per thousand vs SMOC. Injecting 1.6-1100 pmol resulted in standard deviations (1sigma) of 0.6-1.3 per thousand, and the delta(37)Cl results agreed with values independently measured with TIMS. The method was tested by determining the Rayleigh fractionation during evaporation of pure liquid PCE, resulting in a chlorine isotopic enrichment factor of epsilon(Cl) = -1.1 +/- 0.4 per thousand. Furthermore, position-specific delta(37)Cl analysis based on analysis of DDT mass fragments was evaluated. The GCqMS-delta(37)Cl method offers a simplified yet sensitive approach for compound-specific chlorine isotope analysis.