AUTOMATED DATA-ANALYSIS OF FIRE DEBRIS SAMPLES USING GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY-MASS SPECTROMETRY AND MACRO PROGRAMMING

A macro program written for Hewlett Packard Mass Selective Detector da ta stations that performs data analysis of fire debris samples is pres ented. The program generates a report that includes ion profiles for a lkane, aromatic and polynuclear aromatic compounds, plus a list identi fying the major peaks of the sample chromatogram. The algorithm that i ncorporates the retention index of the peak into the search of the mas s spectral library is described in detail.