Determination of ethyl carbamate in alcoholic beverages by capillary multi-dimensional gas chromatography with thermionic specific detection

A specific, sensitive capillary multi-dimensional gas chromatographic method with thermionic specific detection (TSD) combined with internal standard methodology to identify ethyl carbamate (EC), a well known carcinogen, in various fermented alcoholic beverages is described. The basic procedures for sample preparation were similar to a modification of the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) procedure, except that isopropyl carbamate (i-PC) was used as an internal standard. In the multi-dimensional gas chromatographic process, EC and i-PC were co-eluted on a polar capillary precolumn of BP-20, and then switched together to a non-polar OV-1 analytical column by the heart-cutting technique to resolve them and finally detected by TSD. The linear range of the calibration graph was from 10 to 550 ppb with a correlation coefficient of 0.9996. For a liquor containing 124.6 ppb of EC, the relative standard deviation was 2.0% and the detection limit was 1 ppb.