coupled gas chromatography-molecular mass spectrometer-isotope ration mass spectrometer (GC-MS-IRMS)

气相色谱-分子三重四极杆质谱联用同位素比值质谱仪（GC-MS/MS-IRMS），这使得物质混合物的色谱分离和随后的有机分子及其组分特异性同位素比的同时质谱分析成为可能。这种耦合的GC-MS/MS-IRMS由气相色谱-质谱（GC-MS）组成。使用温控色谱法提供生物标志物分子的分离、鉴定和定量的装置。所要求的分子质谱仪由三重四极杆分析仪系统组成，即两个四极杆分析仪与插入的碰撞池（MS/MS），以引起碰撞诱导的分子裂解，从而获得必要的结构信息。GC-MS/MS进一步提供了从复杂基质中过滤出低浓度物质并单独检测它们的可能性，这是简单GC-MS无法实现的。与同位素比质谱仪（IRMS）和上游氧化或还原反应器的耦合使得能够在一个测量周期内确定单个分析物的碳、氮或氢同位素。需要在不同仪器上进行大量分析，并且需要费力地调整各个仪器参数，以将所测定的同位素值分配给各个分子峰。这类新仪器不仅最大限度地减少了分析工作量，而且比现有的单个仪器具有更好的分析产量，这对于通常物质量较小的化石样品来说是一个决定性的优势。然而，这种创新的混合仪器可以进行高分辨率和高材料效率的分析，具有清晰的色谱峰，并同时测定单个化合物的碳，氮和氢同位素比。虽然有机分子的分子结构提供了有关相关生物群和沉积条件的信息，但分析的脂质的13 C、15 N、H/D同位素提供了有关生物体的食物来源和代谢途径的信息。这些额外的信息对于确定生物合成途径至关重要，对于明确指定生物标志物也具有决定性意义，不仅是针对特定的生物群体，而且是针对相应的生物地球化学过程或（古）环境条件。在地质矿物学研究所内，地质生物学工作组（主要用户，仪器操作员），环境同位素地球化学工作组和第四纪地质工作组将使用应用的GC-MS/MS-IRMS，借助生物标志物及其特定成分的同位素分馏，对化石沉积环境进行古重建。

A coupled gas chromatography-molecular triple quadrupole mass spectrometer isotope ratio mass spectrometer (GC-MS/MS-IRMS) is requested for the new Geobiology working group, which enables the chromatographic separation of a substance mixture and subsequently the simultaneous mass spectrometric analysis of the organic molecules and their component-specific isotope ratios.This coupled GC-MS/MS-IRMS consists of a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) unit that provides the separation, identification and quantification of biomarker molecules using temperature-controlled chromatography. The requested molecular mass spectrometer consists of a triple quadrupole analyser system, i.e. two quadrupole analysers with interposed collision cell (MS/MS) to cause collision-induced fragmentation of molecules to obtain essential structural information. GC-MS/MS further offers the possibility to filter out low concentrated substances from complex matrices and to detect them separately, which is not possible with a simple GC-MS. The coupling with the isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) with upstream oxidation or reduction reactors enables the determination of the carbon, nitrogen or hydrogen isotopy of the individual analytes within one measuring cycle.Until now, numerous analyses on different instruments were necessary and the laborious adjustment of the individual instrument parameters was required to assign the determined isotope values to the respective molecular peaks. This new class of instruments not only minimises the analytical effort, but also allows a much better analytical yield than the available individual instruments, which is a decisive advantage for the often small substance quantities of fossil samples. However, this innovative hybrid instrument allows high-resolution and material-efficient analyses with clear chromatogram peaks and simultaneous determinations of the carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen isotope ratios of the individual compounds. While the molecular structures of the organic molecules provide information about the associated organism groups and deposition conditions, the 13C, 15N, H/D isotopies of the analysed lipids provide information about food sources and metabolic pathways of the organisms. This additional information is essential for the determination of biosynthetic pathways and also decisive for the clear assignment of biomarkers, not only to a specific group of organisms, but also to the respective biogeochemical processes or the (palaeo-)environmental conditions. Within the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, the working groups WG Geobiology (main user, instrument operator), WG Environmental Isotope Geochemistry and WG Quaternary Geology will use the applied GC-MS/MS-IRMS for palaeoreconstructions of fossil depositional environments with the help of biomarkers and their component-specific isotope fractionations.