Comparative study of solvent extraction and thermal desorption methods for determining a wide range of volatile organic compounds in ambient air

This paper compares two analytical methods for determining levels of 90 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) commonly found in industrial and urban atmospheres. Both methods are based on two official methods for determining benzene levels and involve collecting samples by active adsorptive enrichment on solid sorbents. The first method involves solvent extraction and uses activated charcoal as a sorbent. After sampling, the sorbent is extracted with 1 mL of carbon disulfide and then 1 μL of the extract is analysed in a GC–MS. The second method involves thermal desorption (TD) and uses Tenax TA and Carbograph 1TD as sorbents, which allows the whole sample to be analysed. In general, the thermal desorption method showed the best repetitivity and recovery and the lowest limit of detection and quantification for all target compounds. Because of its lower sensitivity, the solvent extraction method needs the preconcentration of large sample volumes of air (720 L vs. 2.64 L for the thermal desorption method) to yield similar limits of detection.The performance of both methods in real samples was tested in a location near to a petrochemical complex. The results of the 24-h samples for the solvent extraction method were compared with the average of 12 2-h samples for the TD method. In some cases, both methods found differences in the VOC concentrations, especially in those compounds whose concentrations fluctuate significantly during the day.