Evaluation of different adsorbent materials for the untargeted and targeted bacterial VOC analysis using GC×GC-MS

The analysis of bacterial volatile organic compounds has gained attraction as a non-invasive way to identify disease-causing organisms, given that bacteria have unique metabolisms and volatile metabolic byproducts. In the present research, different adsorbent materials (Carbopack Y, X, B, Carboxen 1000 and Tenax TA), packed singularly or in combination, were compared in terms of sampling performance (sensitivity, repeatability and selectivity) for the extraction of standards and bacterial volatile metabolites in vitro (from Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli). After extraction, bacterial volatile organic compounds were desorbed and analyzed in a comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography system coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (GC × GC-ToF MS). The results show that Tenax has the greater ability to extract the standard mix as well as volatile organic compounds with better repeatability (4–26 RSD%), higher sensitivity (on average ∼24 fold) compared to Carbopack Y, X and Carboxen 1000 tube, which followed in terms of performance. In addition, Tenax confirmed the best sensitivity and discriminatory power with no misclassification in the untargeted and unsupervised analysis for the differentiation of the bacterial species.