Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6341586 | Atmospheric Environment | 2013 | 7 Pages |
Abstract
This work describes optimisation steps of an innovative method for the measurement several groups of semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) in air, collecting both gaseous and particulate air fractions. It is based on active air sampling on sorption tubes (consisting of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and Tenax TA), followed by thermal desorption and gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis (TD-GC-MS). The optimised method was validated in the laboratory for the measurement of selected target compounds from the following chemical classes: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and phthalate esters (PEs). It was applied in different Belgian urban outdoor as well as indoor environments. The new method is characterised by limits of detection in the range of 0.003-0.3 ng mâ3 for PAHs, 0.004-0.2 ng mâ3 for PCBs, 0.113-0.201 ng mâ3 for PBDEs and 0.002-0.2 ng mâ3 for PEs, a linearity of 0.996 and a repeatability of less than 10% for all studied compounds.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Atmospheric Science
Authors
Borislav Lazarov, Rudi Swinnen, Maarten Spruyt, Eddy Goelen, Marianne Stranger, Gilbert Desmet, Eric Wauters,