Summary
The restricted selectivity of conventional methods for the measurement of ß-dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) has prompted the development of novel HPLC instrumentation tailored to the measurement of dimethylsulfide (DMS) precursors. By combining the separation and identification capabilities of ion-exchange HPLC with flame photometric detection after a post-column alkaline hydrolysis step, a high degree of selectivity is achieved towards compounds which readily yield dimethylsulfide on base hydrolysis. The selectivity of the new instrumentation to a number of dimethylsulfonium compounds is described. The detection limit of the prototype instrument for DMSP, based on three times the standard deviation of the blank and using a 200 ul injection volume, corresponds to a concentration of 200nM DMSP or an absolute injected mass of 6 ng of DMSP.
A novel means of response linearization has been achieved by the post-column addition of DMSP. Subsequent hydrolysis of this added DMSP gives a slow continuous bleed of sulfur into the flame photometric detector resulting in a reduction of the log-log calibration graph slope from typically 1.8 to 1.1. This permits essentially linear calibration to be achieved. Sensitivity is improved by such an addition, but only at the expense of increased noise. No significant practical improvement in signal-to-noise characteristics has as yet been attained from such an addition.
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© 1996 Plenum Press, New York
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Howard, A.G., Russell, D.W. (1996). An Alternative Approach to the Measurement of β-Dimenthylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and Other Precursors of Dimethylsulfide. In: Kiene, R.P., Visscher, P.T., Keller, M.D., Kirst, G.O. (eds) Biological and Environmental Chemistry of DMSP and Related Sulfonium Compounds. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0377-0_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0377-0_6
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