Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in environmental water and tap water are typically analyzed by headspace-GC/MS or by purge-and-trap-GC/MS. Because many of these VOCs exhibit low solubility in water and vaporize easily, analyses must be conducted as soon as possible following collection of the sample, and sample holding times are kept short to minimize losses of the volatile target compounds. Additionally, the analysis time for an individual sample should be as short as possible so the maximum number of samples can be analyzed before the holding times expire, preventing low bias in the results.

　　Analysis on a short, narrow-bore capillary column can shorten analysis times significantly without sacrificing chromatographic separation. However, some compounds co-elute and background interference from environmental matrices can increase when using short columns, potentially obstructing identification and quantitation of target compounds at low concentrations. Using a triple quadrupole GC/MS/MS, operated in the Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) mode can improve overall sensitivity of the target compounds, while simultaneously improving selectivity when peaks co-elute, or in the presence of a complex matrix.

　　This study presents analysis conditions for 25 VOCs covering a range of volatility, using static headspace as the sample introduction technique, with GC/MS/MS operated in the MRM mode for detection and quantitation. Use of a short, narrow-bore capillary column permitted analysis of 8 samples per hour, or approximately one sample every 7 minutes.