You are here:
FIELD-DEPLOYABLE MONITORS FOR VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN AIR
Citation:
Berkley, R. FIELD-DEPLOYABLE MONITORS FOR VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN AIR. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/A-93/085 (NTIS PB93185700), 1993.
Description:
Volatile organic compounds in ambient air are usually estimated by trapping them from air or collecting whole air samples and returning them to a laboratory for analysis by gas chromatography using selective detection. ata do not appear for several days, during which sample integrity could become compromised. mmediate data can be obtained, and sampling errors minimized, by analyzing with a field deployable instrument at the time samples are collected. ortable gas chromatographs are available, but they don't fully meet the need for quick, high-quality data under field conditions. hortcomings include insensitive detectors, non-selective detectors, poor resolution, retention time drift, maladroit data processing schemes, excessive energy consumption, and vulnerability to weather. mproved waterproofing, temperature regulation, and energy efficiency are particularly crucial to true field-deployability. uch improvements are probably feasible. ass spectrometric detection, high-speed chromatography, polycapillary chromatography, and peak modulation may lead to useful enhancements in future.
