Purpose of derivatization
- Improved volatility, better thermal stability or a lower limit of detection in GC
- Prerequisite: quantitative, rapid and reproducible formation of only one derivative
- Halogen atoms introduced by derivatization (e.g., trifluoroacetates) for specific detection (ECD) with the advantage of high sensitivity
- Influence of elution orders and fragmentation patterns in MS by a specific derivatization
Silylation reagent BSA
- Strong silylation reagent, which forms very stable TMS derivatives of a wide variety of compounds, e.g., alcohols, amines, carboxylic acids, phenols, steroids, biogenic amines and alkaloids
- Not Recommended for use with carbohydrates or very low molecular weight compounds
- Good solvent for polar compounds, but frequently used in combination with a solvent (pyridine, DMF etc.) or with other silylation reagents
- When used with DMF, BSA is the reagent of choice for derivatizing phenols
Silylation reagent BSTFA
- Powerful trimethylsilyl donor with approximately the same donor strength as the nonfluorinated analog BSA
- Advantage of BSTFA over BSA: greater volatility of its reaction products (particularly useful for GC of some lower boiling TMS amino acids)
- BSTFA is nonpolar (less polar than MSTFA), and can be mixed with acetonitrile for improved solubility.
- For silylating fatty acid amides, hindered hydroxyls and other compounds, which are difficult to silylate (like secondary alcohols and amines), we recommend BSTFA + 1 % trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS), available under the designation SILYL-991.
These products can contain harmful substances which must be specially labeled as hazardous.