Determination of 67 volatile organic compounds in ambient air using thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method based on thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) was developed for the simultaneous analysis of 67 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in ambient air. In this study, the adsorption effects of five kinds of stainless steel sorbent tubes for 78 VOCs were compared. The results revealed that a multisorbent bed with Carbograph 1TD and Tenax TA shows good adsorption effect for the 67 target compounds. The breakthrough rates of all the target compounds were less than 10% when high-purity helium gas was continuously purged for 45 min at 30 mL/min. The analytes included aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons, and oxygen-containing volatile organic compounds. The thermal desorption conditions for the determination of the target substances were optimized. In the range 5-100 ng, the chromatographic response of the target compounds had a good linear relationship with their corresponding amounts, and the correlation coefficient (r) was between 1.0000 and 0.9977. The method detection limits (MDLs) were 0.3-2.4 ng or 0.3-2.4 μg/m3, as calculated by a 1 L sampling volume. The method was validated by means of recovery experiments (n=7) with the addition of 20 ng standard samples. The recoveries of all the target compounds were in the range of 81.6%-114.9%, and their relative standard deviations (RSDs) were in the range of 1.2%-10.2%. The VOCs present in the air in a carriage were detected using this method. The 19 target compounds included esters, halogenated alkanes, halogenated olefins, and aromatic substances, whose concentrations ranged from 1.1 to 84.1 μg/m3. These results indicated that our method is accurate, reliable, and sensitive, and can allow for accurate quantification of the 67 target pollutants in ambient air.