Chemical-ionization mass spectromertry (CIMS) using flow reacators in an emerging method for on-line monitoring of trace concentrations of organic compounds in the gas phase. In this study, a flow-reactor CIMS instrument, employing the H_3O~+ cation as the ionizing reagent, was used to simultaneously monitor several volatile metabolic products as they are released into the headspace during bacterial growth in a bioreactor. Production of acetaldehyde, ethanol, acetone, butanol, acetoin, diacetyl, and isoprene by Bacillus subtilis is reported. Ion signal intensities were related to solution-based concentrations using empirical calibrations and, in the case of isoprene, were compared with simultaneous gas chromatography measurements. Identification of volatile and semivolatile metabolites is discussed. Flow-reactor CIMS techniques should be useful for bioprocess monitoring applications because of their ability to sensitively and simultaneouly monitor many volatile metabolites on-line.
展开▼
