Characterization of volatile organic compounds by thermal desorption/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:210677

Ma, Cheng-Yu; Skeen, J T; Dindal, A B ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States); and others

Carbonaceous triple sorbent traps (TSTs) have been widely used to collect and concentrate volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in vapor phase samples for subsequent GC/MS analysis. Recently, this laboratory has been involved in sampling and analyzing VOCs collected from various emission sources, including headspace samples from underground storage tanks at the Department of Energy`s Hanford site, in Richland, Washington. In order to evaluate the sampling adequacy and to assess any health-related impact based on the analysis results, a validated method must be employed. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to develop a methology for thermal desorption/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (TD/GC/MS) determination of VOCs in the vapor phase samples collected on Carbotrap C/Carbotrap/Carbosieve S III triple sorbent traps. Techniques used in method validation included VOC standard generation, thermal desorption efficiency, reproducibility of spiking on and recovery from TST, use of internal standards, detection limits determination, linearity and reproducibility of calibration.

• OSTI ID: 210677
• Report Number(s): CONF-9505261--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
40 CHEMISTRY
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ADSORBENTS
CALIBRATION
DESORPTION
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
SAMPLING
VOLATILE MATTER