Analysis of volatile organic compounds in indoor environments using thermal desorption with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Cathrin Veenaas,Peter Haglund,Matyas Ripszam

doi:10.1002/jssc.201901103

Abstract

Building-related health effects are frequently observed. Several factors have been listed as possible causes including temperature, humidity, light conditions, presence of particulate matter, and microorganisms or volatile organic compounds. To be able to link exposure to specific volatile organic compounds to building-related health effects, powerful and comprehensive analytical methods are required. For this purpose, we developed an active air sampling method that utilizes dual-bed tubes loaded with TENAX-TA and Carboxen-1000 adsorbents to sample two parallel air samples of 4 L each. For the comprehensive volatile organic compounds analysis, an automated thermal desorption comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry method was developed and used. It allowed targeted analysis of approximately 90 known volatile organic compounds with relative standard deviations below 25% for the vast majority of target volatile organic compounds. It also allowed semiquantification (no matching standards) of numerous nontarget air contaminants using the same data set. The nontarget analysis workflow included peak finding, background elimination, feature alignment, detection frequency filtering, and tentative identification. Application of the workflow to air samples from 68 indoor environments at a large hospital complex resulted in a comprehensive volatile organic compound characterization, including 178 single compounds and 13 hydrocarbon groups.

Highlights

IntroductionThe chemical composition of indoor air is highly variable and depends on many factors, including ventilation, type of building materials, furniture and appliances, local combustion sources, use of chemical products (personal care products, cleaning products, etc.), and occupant behavior
The chemical composition of indoor air is highly variable and depends on many factors, including ventilation, type of building materials, furniture and appliances, local combustion sources, use of chemical products, and occupant behavior
Headaches, skin irritations, or mucous membrane symptoms that are associated with a certain building are described as sick-building syndrome or, more accurately, building-related symptoms (BRS) and can partly be attributed to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) [2,3]

Summary

Introduction

The chemical composition of indoor air is highly variable and depends on many factors, including ventilation, type of building materials, furniture and appliances, local combustion sources, use of chemical products (personal care products, cleaning products, etc.), and occupant behavior. Many more chemicals can be found in indoor air and many more can, alone or as cumulative effects, affect occupant health. We present an analytical method for the comprehensive characterization of VOC composition in indoor air using thermal desorption–comprehensive 2D GC–MS (TD-GC × GC-MS). For example using sorbent tubes [4], are more feasible for broad, short-term assessments of air quality than diffusion sampling techniques such as SPME [5]. A cryo-focusing (cold trap) is performed right after the desorption and before the injection to obtain injection as a narrow band [7]

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Conclusion