Selective detection of chlorine-containing compounds by gas chromatography/chemical reaction interface mass spectrometry.

Chemical reaction interface mass spectrometry (CRIMS) was studied as a gas chromatographic detection technique for chlorine-containing compounds. Both SO2 and HBr were tested as reactant gases. With SO2, a detection limit of 50 pg of diazepam and a linear range of 4 orders of magnitude were achieved, and the experimental data were reproducible. With HBr, the detection limit was 10 ng of diazepam and the linear dynamic range was only 2 orders of magnitude. The possible pharmacological application of CRIMS was studied using urine spiked with diazepam and several of its metabolites, and the results show CRIMS to be a simple but potentially powerful method in drug metabolism studies.