Environmental and Forensic applications of field-portable GC-MS: An overview

GC-MS can provide analytical information that is most reliable for many types of organic analyses. As field-portable GC-MS analytical systems evolve, the application scenarios have diversified as well. With the development of rugged fieldable systems, these instruments were demonstrated to be usable in the harsh environment of the jungle and in chemical demilitarization or military reconnaissance situations. Continuous unattended operations of a GC-MS for 12- or 24-hour monitoring applications in the field have been shown to be possible. A real-time algorithm strategy is proposed, which can be developed to aid in the advancement of field-portable mass spectrometry applied to chemical warfare agent analysis in military vehicles and can be used to raise the standard for field data quality. Each of these capabilities is discussed with the intent on reviewing analysis situations that can be expanded because of developments in field GC-MS instrumentation.