Abstract
Growing concern about the effects of atmospheric pollutants on climate and human health has accelerated the development of novel analytical methods, including sampling systems, for the determination of atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Miniaturised air sampling (MAS) techniques have attracted wide attention in the past two decades due to their advantages (ease of operation, time-integrated sampling, small/no organic solvent consumption, and potential for automation). This review focuses on the latest developments in these techniques, including needle trap microextraction (NTME), in-tube extraction (ITEX), sorption trap, solid-phase microextraction (SPME fibre, SPME Arrow, and retracted SPME fibre), thin-film microextraction (TFME), solid-phase dynamic extraction (SPDE), and stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE). Further, their benefits, drawbacks, and applicability to air sampling are discussed. The applications of MAS techniques for the analysis of atmospheric air, indoor air, breath air, and emissions of plants and foods are summarised and discussed.
Highlights
N (SPME fibre, SPME Arrow, and retracted SPME fibre), thin-film microextraction (TFME), solidphase dynamic extraction (SPDE), and stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE)
The results showed that this needle trap device (NTD) behaved like a zero sink for BTEX, its response time was much shorter than the sampling time, and its face velocity does not affect the sampling efficiency, all of which match the prerequisites of a useful diffusive time-weighted average (TWA) sampler
Miniaturised air sampling (MAS) techniques, which use miniaturised samplers and configurations, have been introduced to overcome problems related to conventional air sampling techniques, such as their bulk size, long sampling times, high cost, and serious artefacts
Summary
Growing global concern about the effects of atmospheric pollutants on climate and human health has accelerated the development of novel analytical methods for the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere. In addition to aerosol particles, the substances that need to be monitored usually include VOCs, semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs), chemical precursors (e.g., ozone and nitrogen oxides), and/or different reaction products (like oxidation products). Due to their important role in the environment, this review focuses on the air sampling techniques of VOCs. VOCs are defined as, “chemicals that have boiling points from 50–260 oC measured at a standard atmospheric pressure of 101.3 kPa and capable of producing photochemical oxidants by reactions with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight” [8,9]. The desired air sampling technique should be efficient and meet the requirements set for VOCs by researchers and users
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
