18 

 electroantennograms (GC/EAG) would be a valuable extension to the work reported 



in this dissertation; this topic will be readdressed in Chapter 6. 



Overview of Analytical Methods and Detection 



The majority of the work in this dissertation consists of sample introduction 

 methods and detection of compounds by mass spectrometry. This section will 

 provide fundamental information about the techniques referred to throughout this 

 dissertation. This initial overview is intended to be very general in scope. More 

 specific consideration of sample introduction methods, ionization methods, and 

 tandem mass spectrometry will be addressed appropriately in subsequent chapters. 



Overview of Mass Spectrometry 



The first reports of mass spectrometry, as recounted by Nier. occurred in 

 1918-1919 from the work of Aston and Dempster [32]. Mass spectrometry allows for 

 the determination of abundances of specific masses (specifically mass-to-charge 

 ratios) [33]. It is arguably one of the most powerful tools for identification and 

 quantitation of compounds. Identification of compounds by GC/MS trace detection 

 is likely the most common information derived from mass spectrometric detection. 

 This dissertation employs GC/MS; however, the introduction method employed to 

 sample components is modified and will be addressed later. The fundamental 

 ionization process of mass spectrometry is that of electron ionization. This mode as 

 well as chemical ionization will be addressed from a historical view in this chapter 



