AUTOMATED RECOGNITION OF TARGET COMPOUNDS AT LOW-LEVELS IN ENVIRONMENTAL-SAMPLES BY MEANS OF CAPILLARY GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY WITH DEDICATED MASS-SPECTRAL LIBRARIES AND THE MACRO PROGRAM AUTARG .1. DESCRIPTION OF THE MACRO PROGRAM AUTARG

Automatic pesticide screening was performed using a macro program to compare mass spectra acquired during CC-MS with those in designated mass spectral libraries containing a limited number of target compounds. The automated evaluation procedure enabled fast recognition of pesticides in complex chromatograms. The application of reconstructed ion chromatograms of two characteristic ions and time window programming even leads to the recognition of target compounds overlapped by matrix substances and background noise.