Applicability of silicone membrane passive samplers for monitoring of indoor air quality

A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the permeability of m embranes made of silicone foil with respect to selected volatile organic co mpounds such as butanol, benzene, toluene, butyl acetate, ethylbenzene, m-x ylene, styrene, m-dichlorobenzene. On the basis of model experiments the ca libration constants k for 18 passive samplers were determined (with respect to each compound present in the gaseous standard mixture). The obtained calibration constants found are characterised by good precisio n (except for butanol, relative standard deviation are not greater than 9%) . The comparison of the calibration constants for the samplers with silicon e membrane of 50 mu m thick with those obtained for samplers with polyethyl ene membrane of 15.5 mu m shows that silicone membrane samplers will give h igher enrichment factors for the compounds studied.