2
Getting accurate, reliable results quickly is critical for labs analyzing blood alcohol concentration (BAC).
NewRtx®-BACPlus 1 andRtx®-BACPlus 2 columns providedefinitivedata in a fast, 2-minute analysis, so
youcanbecertainof your resultsandmaximize sample throughput.
Blood alcohol content is oftendeterminedusingheadspace injection anddual columnGC-FID analysis.
While this is a relatively straightforwardprocedure, column choiceplays amajor role indataquality and
reliability. Inorder toproduceaccurate results, theprimaryandconfirmationcolumnsmust fully separate
target analytes from all interferences and produce symmetrical peaks. Due to deficiencies in selectivity
and inertness, coelution and tailing peaks are observed on competitor columns, whichmake confident
reportingof target alcoholsdifficult.
BestOverallPerformance
New Rtx®-BAC Plus 1 and Rtx®-BAC Plus 2 columns have optimized column selectivities, which result in
optimized resolution of all target compounds, as well as the retention time and elution order changes
necessary for confirmation.Thesenewcolumnsoutperformotherbloodalcohol columnpairsandensure
baselineseparationofall critical compounds, includingethanol,methanol, acetone,
tert
-butanol (IS), acet-
aldehyde, isopropanol, and1-propanol (IS), in less than2minutes (Figure1).Theseparationof
tert
-butanol
is especiallynotable as it has recentlybeen adopted as an internal standard for BACheadspace analysis,
but coeluteswithacetoneon somecolumns.
Inaddition tobeing fullyseparated, target compoundsexhibitexcellentpeaksymmetryonRtx®-BACPlus
columns, allowingmore accurate integration. In contrast, alcohol peaks on competitor columns display
tailing,which canmake integrationdifficult. As shown inTable I andFigure1, theRtx®-BACPlus columns
produce thebestpeak shape for ethanol among thecolumns tested.
QualityCounts
Every
Rtx®-BACPlus 1andPlus 2 column is conditionedatmaximum isothermal temperatureandquality
testedwith theanalytes shown inFigure1 toensure reliable separationsof all target compounds.Quality
specifications for retentionandefficiencyensure consistent column-to-columnperformance, and tightly
controlledmanufacturing results in robust columns with long lifetimes. Themaximum temperature of
these100%chemicallybondedcolumns is260 °C.
Compared to other columns, new Rtx®-BAC Plus 1 and Rtx®-BAC Plus 2 columns offer the best overall
performance forbloodalcohol analysis.Thesecolumnsprovide fully separated, highly symmetrical peaks
ina fast2-minuteanalysis, allowinganalysts todeterminebloodalcohol concentrationquicklyand report
resultswithcertainty.
NewRtx®-BACPlus1andRtx®-BACPlus2Columns
AdvancedTechnology for Fast, ReliableMeasurementofAlcohol inBlood
Table I:
Rtx®-BACPlus1andRtx®-BACPlus2columnsexhibitbothbaseline resolutionof
critical compoundsandexcellentpeak shapecompared tootherbloodalcohol columns
available.
Column
Resolution
(Methanol/Acetaldehyde)
Resolution
(Acetone/
tert
-Butanol)
USPTailingFactor
(Ethanol)
Rtx®-BACPlus1
-
3.5
1.287
DB®-ALC1
-
0.2
1.470
ZBBAC1
-
3.4
1.852
Rtx®-BACPlus2
4.4
-
1.089
DB®-ALC2
4.6
-
1.445
ZBBAC2
2.8
-
2.085
