Determination of trace methanol in wine by improved distillation-dopant-assisted high-field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry.

Methanol is a harmful component in wine, and excessive intake is a serious health hazard. In this study, an improved distillation enrichment coupled with dopant-assisted high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) detection system was constructed for the sensitive determination of methanol in wine. The methanol in wine was effectively separated and enriched by improved distillation pretreatment to reduce matrix interference; 2-butanone was introduced as a dopant to generate ions and free electrons under UV lamp ionization. A new reaction channel was provided for the efficient ionization of methanol to enhance the resolution of methanol peaks. Further, the methanol and dopant were introduced into the FAIMS sensor by high-purity nitrogen to achieve the specific and sensitive detection of methanol, and the detection limit of FAIMS for methanol was as low as 16 ppb. The potential of FAIMS for the detection of wine was also further verified by the coupling of the detection of actual wine samples.