Simultaneous analysis of five taste and odor compounds in surface water using solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

In this paper, a method using solid-phase extraction (SPE) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed to simultaneously analyze five taste and odor compounds in surface water, i.e., 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB), 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), 2-isopropyl-3-methoxy pyrazine (IPMP), 2-isobutyl-3-methoxy pyrazine (IBMP), and trans-1,10-dimethyl-trans-9-decalol (geosmin, GSM). The mass spectrometry was operated in selective ion monitoring (SIM) mode. Three kinds of SPE columns and three eluting solvents were compared, the C18 column was chosen as optimum SPE column, and methanol was chosen as the optimum eluting solvent. It was found that the method showed good linearity in the range of 1–200 ng·L⁻¹ and gave detection limits of 0.5–1.5 ng·L⁻¹ for individual compounds. Good recoveries (93.5%–108%) and relative standard deviations (1.58%–7.31%) were also obtained. Additionally, concentrations of these taste and odor compounds in Jinan’s surface and drinking water were analyzed by applying this method, and the results showed that GSM and 2-MIB were the dominant taste and odor compounds in Jinan’s raw water.