EVALUATION OF GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY COUPLED WITH ION MOBILITY SPECTROMETRY FOR MONITORING VINYL-CHLORIDE AND OTHER CHLORINATED AND AROMATIC-COMPOUNDS IN AIR SAMPLES
G. Simpson et al., EVALUATION OF GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY COUPLED WITH ION MOBILITY SPECTROMETRY FOR MONITORING VINYL-CHLORIDE AND OTHER CHLORINATED AND AROMATIC-COMPOUNDS IN AIR SAMPLES, HRC. Journal of high resolution chromatography, 19(6), 1996, pp. 301-312
The objective of this research was to evaluate, in the laboratory, the
potential of gas chromatography/ion mobility spectrometry (GC/IMS) fo
r monitoring vinyl chloride and other organic compounds in air samples
in the field, It was determined that GC/IMS has the potential to dire
ctly detect vinyl chloride in air at the 2 ppbv level, and when concen
trated on an adsorbent trap from a 1 L sample of air, detection could
be Lowered to the 0.02 ppbv level, From a comparative investigation of
18 EPA priority pollutants and 34 common vapor-phase organic compound
s, many compounds mere found to provide a more sensitive response in I
MS than vinyl chloride, indicating that GC/IMS would be broadly applic
able to the direct detection of vapor-phase organics in air. Operating
parameters including drift gas, spectrometer temperature, and sample-
inlet position were evaluated and discussed with respect to sensitivit
y and resolution, High temperature dramatically increased sensitivity
to vinyl chloride, Vinyl chloride was shown to produce both negative a
nd positive ion mobility spectra, with the negative-mode spectra resul
ting from electron-capture dissociation of the vinyl chloride, The lim
it of detection for vinyl chloride was found to be 7 pg/s, Limits of d
etection for 18 EPA priority pollutants were determined and compared t
o vinyl chloride, The responses of 34 other vapor-phase organic compou
nds were also compared to that of vinyl chloride, Non-selective, posit
ive-ion detection of 30 of the 34 compounds was demonstrated along wit
h selective, electron-capture-type detection of 29 of them, Chloride-s
pecific and bromide-specific detection illustrated the advantages of s
elected-ion monitoring in IMS.