Abstract
Gas chromatography (GC) determination of C2-C12 hydrocarbons (HCs) in atmospheric samples is a complex task. In general, it involves employing two chromatographic systems or a double gas chromatograph, where the gaseous sample is divided into two fractions. In this study an alternative system is put forward for the analysis of ambient air samples, including urban, industrial and forest environments, indoor samples and direct exhaust vehicular samples. A single GC system was used with a capillary flow technology Deans Switch, configured with two detectors (MS and FID) and two columns (primary column - DB-624 and secondary column - PoraPlot Q-HT). Samples were collected by means of specially prepared stainless-steel canisters, and then trapped and thermally desorbed. The effectiveness of this method was assessed with two kinds of samples: ambient air collected in an urban forest where HCs concentrations are very low and indoor air collected in an enclosed underground parking lot characterized by poor ventilation and a relatively high concentration of pollutants emitted in the combustion of flex-fuel vehicles. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ), were 0.2 µg m−3 and 0.6 µg m−3, respectively, for a typical injection volume of 500 mL. The results showed that the method was applicable for the analysis of all the samples and underlined the importance of C2 HCs which cannot be determined from a conventional TO-15 US EPA Method.
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