Analytical Sciences

Determination of Oxygenated Volatile Organic Compounds in Ambient Air Using Canister Collection-Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

Jun-ya HOSHI,* Masato HIGUCHI,* Yuko SASAKI,* and Takashi KORENAGA**

*Tokyo Metropolitan Research Institute for Environmental Protection, 1-7-5 Shin-suna, Koto, Tokyo 136-0075, Japan
**Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-Ohsawa, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan

This research attempts to establish a method to measure 11 kinds of oxygenated volatile organic compound (OVOC) in ambient air by using the canister collection-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method. Since several compounds such as acetone exhibited high blank concentrations due to their laboratory use, stringent quality control was conducted for the VOC-free added water and the VOC-free nitrogen gas. In order to prevent the decline of recovery rates due to lack of sufficient relative humidity, it is necessary to add VOC-free water when pressurizing and diluting the air samples. Thus, all the target compounds in ambient air were obtained from the canisters at high recovery rates without significant contamination. Furthermore, the canister collection-GC/MS method makes it possible to apply simultaneous air monitoring of OVOCs as well as volatile hazardous air pollutants without additional sampling.

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