Evaluation of a portable GC/MS for screening organic contaminants in soil

Conference · Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1992

OSTI ID:10149856

Harrison, W; Reed, L L ^[1]; Sandberg, S A ^[2]; Anuszewski, C L ^[3]

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1. Armed Services Technical Information Agency, Arlington, VA (United States)
2. Hydro-Terra, Inc., Columbia, MD (United States)
3. Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, MD (United States). Baltimore District

In an effort to speed up clearance of building-construction sites in the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground. Maryland, Argonne National Laboratory leased a Bruker Instruments Mobile Environmental Monitor (MEM) to analyze for organics in soils. The MEM is a portable gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS). Argonne`s MEM was mounted in a Chevy Blazer and driven to each site of interest. The Bruker analytical system uses a ``probe`` with a thermal devolatilization ring on the end and short GC column inside to permit rapid assessment (via GC/MS) of characteristic fragmentation masses in small samples of soil as soon as they are removed from the ground. Volatiles and semivolatiles can be qualitatively determined with the probe and MS. quantitation of volatiles and semivolatiles is handled by substituting a GC oven (and its contained 30-m-long GC column) for the probe.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Department of Defense, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 10149856
• Report Number(s): ANL/CP--75977; CONF-9204110--5; ON: DE92014767
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400102
400105
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540220
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHEMICAL AND SPECTRAL PROCEDURES
CHEMICALS MONITORING AND TRANSPORT
CONTAMINATION
DATA PROCESSING
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
ORGANIC WASTES
SEPARATION PROCEDURES
SOILS
VOLATILITY