DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF A THERMAL-DESORPTION METHOD FOR THE ANALYSIS OF POLAR VOLATILE ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS IN WORKPLACE AIR

The application of a newly developed thermal desorption method for the analysis of workplace air to the analysis of polar compounds is repor ted. The method was validated for both pumped and diffusive sampling o f test gases containing polar volatile organic compounds (esters, alco hols, ketones or aldehydes) on adsorption tubes and subsequent analysi s of these tubes. Carbosieve SIII, Carboxen 569, Carbopack B and Tenax TA were used as solid adsorbents. Analysis was performed by thermal d esorption of the analytes from the adsorbent tubes followed by gas chr omatography-flame ionisation detection (GC-FID). It could be demonstra ted that thermal desorption-GC-FID is feasible also for the analysis o f polar compounds and that problems arising from the high concentratio n levels of some analytes in workplace air could be solved. (C) 1998 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.