Rapid ethanol determination in alcoholic beverages via dilute-and-shoot molecular emission spectrometry with a solution anode glow discharge excitation source

A high-throughput molecular emission spectrometry (MES) was developed for ethanol determination in alcoholic beverages. Samples, diluted 25-100 times with a 0.01 mol·L^-1 HNO₃ solution, were directly introduced into a solution anode glow discharge (SAGD), where evaporation, fragmentation, and excitation occurred, producing an intense CO molecular band at 206.8 nm. The method demonstrated high precision (1-3 %), a low detection limit of ethanol (0.005 %, v/v), and an upper linearity range at a concentration of 0.6 %. Additionally, SAGD MES exhibited excellent resistance to matrix effects, eliminating the need for sample distillation. The newly proposed dilute-and-shoot approach enabled an analytical throughput of 50 samples per hour. The trueness of the method was assessed across various alcoholic beverages, demonstrating good agreement with the reference method (redox titration), with relative errors ranging from -1.7 % to +7.0 %. Beyond ethanol determination, SAGD MES also showed promise for detecting other volatile organic compounds, expanding its potential applications.