Evaluation of sorptive enrichment for the analysis of phthalates in air samples

Classical methods for sampling and analysis of phthalates in air suffer fro m low sensitivity and high risk of contamination. A new approach based on e nrichment on polydimethylsiloxane sorption tubes followed by thermal desorp tion and capillary gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis is described. The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) support coated traps allow suff icient enrichment while the phthalates can be desorbed quantitatively at mo derate temperatures. In combination with capillary CC-MS analysis, high sen sitivity, accuracy, and repeatability are obtained while the risk of contam ination is strongly reduced. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.