Gas chromatographic determination of some alkoxysilanes for use in occupational exposure assessment

The manufacture and application of organosilicon compounds, especially sila nes, have increased dramatically during recent decades. This has led to an increase in the number of exposed workers in different areas of industry. T herefore, there is an urgent need for an analytical method which can assess exposure to these compounds. A capillary column gas chromatographic (GC) m ethod was developed for detecting 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane, 3-g lycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. The silane s diluted in heptane were analysed by GC using flame ionisation detection. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to confirm the identity of th e GC peaks. The analytical range of the method varied from 1 or 5 mu g ml(- 1) to 500 mu g ml(-1) depending on the silane being studied. The detection limits were 1 mu g ml(-1) for 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane and 3-gl ycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane and 5 mu g ml(-1) for 3-aminopropyltriethoxys ilane. The mean recovery of silanes tested with patch samples was > 95% for all of the silanes. The repeatability of the patch sample method for silan es varied from 6.5 to 10.1%. This new GC method allows the simultaneous det ermination of three organosilicon compounds for occupational exposure asses sment.