Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Determination of Ethanol Concentration in Alcoholic Beverages by Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS)

Published

Author(s)

Edward Sisco, Liz Robinson

Abstract

Determination of the ethanol concentration in beverages remains a common request to forensic laboratories. While traditionally completed using headspace gas chromatography (HS-GC), this process involves lengthy run times and the need for specialized headspace sampling equipment for the GC system. The work presented here highlights a potential alternative to HS-GC analysis, using direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS). By incorporating a simple T-junction to the orifice of the mass spectrometer, analysis of the headspace of a beverage can be completed, resulting in measurement of the ethanol concentration in a matter of seconds with greater than 99 % accuracy. This work presents the development of a method for ethanol quantitation as well as results from the analysis of both ethanol reference material standards and in-house created ethanol-containing solutions to evaluate the precision and accuracy of the technique. Analysis of ethanolic beverages via DART-MS has been shown to be a rapid and reliable alternative to traditional analysis by HS-GC.
Citation
Forensic Chemistry
Volume
18

Keywords

Alcohol, DART-MS, Ethanol, Quantitation

Citation

Sisco, E. and Robinson, L. (2020), Determination of Ethanol Concentration in Alcoholic Beverages by Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS), Forensic Chemistry, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forc.2020.100219 (Accessed October 3, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created January 16, 2020, Updated February 13, 2020