Development of a safety analysis method for volatile organic compounds using 2-phenoxyethanol as solvent

Abstract

Indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are usually sampled using active carbon samplers and subsequently analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to assess the exposure risk to workers. Therefore, selection of a suitable solvent for VOC extraction is crucial. However, reports on the use of 2-phenoxyethanol—known for its low vapor pressure and low toxicity—as a solvent for extracting VOCs from activated carbon are lacking. Here, we show that 2-phenoxyethanol is a suitable alternative solvent with low toxicity and can extract a wide variety of VOCs without overlapping with target VOCs on the gas chromatogram. The recoveries of 2-phenoxyethanol were 57% (styrene) to 83% (methyl n-butyl ketone), which were higher than those of CS2, acetone, and n-hexane at room temperature. The recoveries improved to 67% (styrene) to 102% (isopentyl acetate) under 50 °C. Optimization of the GC conditions showed that a viscosity delay time of 3 s was required to avoid producing bubbles in the injection syringes. We selected DB-HeavyWAX as a column because it could be heated above the boiling point of 2-phenoxyethanol (247 °C), allowing the removal of 2-phenoxyethanol from the column. This study contributes to the development of analysis methods for VOCs under safe operating conditions.