Hydrohalocarbons are the proposed replacement compounds for the chlorofluorocarbons. They will initially have very low concentrations, on the order of a ppt (v/v), in the global atmosphere. Neither gas chromatography—electron-capture detection, nor gas chromatography—mass spectrometry, have adequate sensitivity to measure such concentrations directly from air samples; concentration techniques are required to achieve this. We have examined a range of commercially-available adsorbents, including activated charcoals, carbon molecular sieves, porous polymers, and graphitized carbons, for their suitability as ambient temperature concentrating traps for a range of man-made halocarbons and hydrohalocarbons (CFC-12, CFC-11, CFC-13, HCFC-22, HCFC-123 and HFC-134a). From our measurements of specific retention and desorption volumes it was found that no one adsorbent could both collect all of the target compounds with high efficiency, and also allow efficient recovery by thermal desorption. A sequence of adsorbents is required. We designed a 30 cm long × 0.64 cm O.D. trap containing HayeSep D B (a porous polymer), Carboxen 1000 and Carbosieve S-II (both carbon molecular sieves) to collect all of the target compounds from a 51 air sample at 25°C and allow efficient recovery with 500 ml of nitrogen carrier gas at 200°C. Good comparability was demonstrated between the adsorbent trapping system and direct loop injection analysis for CFC-12 in ambient air. Precision for all of the compounds analyzed with the adsorbent trap was better than 4%, and improved to better than 1% when ratioed to CFC-12.