Environmental applications of thermal extraction cone penetrometry and ultrafast gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

This article describes the collection and analysis of organic contaminants at depth without bringing soil to the surface. A thermal extraction cone pe netrometer (TECP) probe was used to extract soil-bound semivolatile organic s, transferring them to the surface for analysis by ultrafast gas chromatog raphy/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), Findings showed that polychlorinated biphe nyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated pesticides, and explosi ves could be collected and analyzed in 5 min when the soil-water content wa s < 20% and in 15 min when it was between 20 and 35%. When the TECP was dir ectly connected to the GC/MS, trinitrotoluene (TNT) and four of its synthet ic precursors were speciated in 20 sec, Moreover, 51 VOCs were detected by membrane-inlet mass spectrometry in similar to 10 sec. Organics were "sniff ed" from a vial and identified using the ion Fingerprint Detection (TM) sof tware. The algorithms provide the means to untangle complex mass spectra ma king real-time, electronic nose detection and identification by MS possible , (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.