Quantification of nitrogen compounds in diesel fuel samples by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with quadrupole mass spectrometry.

Although several methods for the analysis of nitrogen compounds in diesel fuel have been described in the literature, the demand for rapid, sensitive, and robust analyses has increased in recent years. In this study, a comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatographic method was developed for the identification and quantification of nitrogen compounds in diesel fuel samples. The quantification was performed using the standard addition method and the analysis was conducted using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with fast quadrupole mass spectrometry. This study is the first to report quantification of nitrogen compounds in diesel fuel samples using the standard addition method without fractionation. This type of analysis was previously performed using many laborious separation steps, which can lead to errors and losses. The proposed method shows good linearity for target nitrogen compounds evaluated (m-toluidine, 4-ethylaniline, indole, 7-methylindole, 7-ethylindole, carbazole, isoquinoline, 4-methylquinoline, benzo[h]quinolone, and acridine) over a range from 0.05 to 2.0 mg/L, and limits of detection and quantification of <0.06 and 0.16 mg/L, respectively, for all nitrogen compounds studied.