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SIFT-MS: Quantifying the Volatiles You Smell…and the Toxics You Don’t
Summary
This review covers the applications of selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) for detecting volatile organic compounds in areas ranging from food products to workplace safety and environmental monitoring. The study highlights how SIFT-MS can quantify both odorous and hazardous compounds, including those released from plastic materials, that fall below human detection thresholds.
The human olfactory system is highly attuned to detection of a wide range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), but the sensitivity varies considerably based on chemical functionality. Whereas most humans can appreciate the sensory properties of certain foods, beverages, and fragrances, and at times be alerted to volatile chemical hazards, many VOCs are hazardous below the human odor detection threshold. Since its introduction in the mid-1990s, selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) has been widely applied to quantitative analysis of a broad range of VOCs in applications from food products to workplace safety to environmental monitoring, and most recently to pharmaceutical testing. This review surveys the applications of SIFT-MS in odor analysis and in workplace, environmental and consumer protection, with a particular focus on the complementarity of this real-time mass spectrometry analyzer to sensor technology and conventional laboratory techniques—in particular, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS).
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