ABSTRACT
The term "hyphenated techniques" was coined by the late Tomas Hirschfeld within a classic review article. These techniques can be as simple as a gas chromatograph linked to a mass spectrometer (GC/MS) or as complicated as a gas chromatograph linked to a Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and a mass spectrometer (GC/FT-IR/MS). Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency monitors a few hundred ex-tractable, GC-volatile organic compounds by GC/MS (target approach). Gas chromatography/Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (GC/FT-IR) has been shown to be a viable alternative, or a supplementary technique, to GC/MS for environmental analysis. Further work on the applicability of the infrared absorption coefficient approach to on-the-fly GC/FT-IR is required to determine its feasibility for environmental monitoring. Although sophisticated computer software is available to process GC/MS data (e.g., the probability-based matching algorithm and GC/FT-IR data [GIFTS]), no commercial software is currently available to process the data generated by a directly linked GC/FT-IR/MS system.
