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COMPARISON OF FAST GC/TOFMS WITH METHOD TO-14 FOR ANALYSIS OF AMBIENT AIR SAMPLES
Citation:
Berkley, R E., K. D. Oliver, H. H. Jacumin Jr., P. Ebersold, AND T. Budd. COMPARISON OF FAST GC/TOFMS WITH METHOD TO-14 FOR ANALYSIS OF AMBIENT AIR SAMPLES. Presented at Ninth International Conference On-Site Analysis, Amelia Island, FL, January 21-24, 2000.
Impact/Purpose:
This project is intended to provide the Agency with much faster methods of GCMS analysis without sacrificing data quality.
Description:
Field studies using portable gas chromatographs (PGC) to analyze volatile organic compounds in ambient air usually include, as reference standard method, the analysis of concurrent, collocated canister samples by EPA Method TO-14. Each laboratory analysis takes about an hour and is followed by lengthy data verification. Reference standard data often do not appear before the end of a field study. Fast gas chromatography (FGC) can perform the same analyses much faster and offers the possibility of using reference standard data to influence the conduct of the study.
A fast GC system composed of commercially-available components was operated in the role of reference standard method during a field study conducted in Research Triangle Park, NC. Field analyses were done with PerkinElmer VoyagerTM PGCs. Canister grab samples collected simultaneously were analyzed by an FGC system composed of an Agilent Technologies 6890TM gas chromatograph equipped with a Chromatofast GC AcceleratorTM narrow-bandwidth injector and a Leco Pegasus IITM time-of-flight mass spectrometer detector. It could process whole-air canister samples about ten times faster than conventional EPA Method TO-14. Canister samples were also analyzed by conventional Method TO-14 and data were compared.
This work has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under contract no. 68-D5-0049 to ManTech Environmental Services Inc. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.