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Determination of benzene at trace levels in air by a novel method based on solid‐phase microextraction gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
Author(s) -
Saba Alessandro,
Cuzzola Angela,
Raffaelli Andrea,
Pucci Sergio,
Salvadori Piero
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.518
Subject(s) - chemistry , chromatography , mass spectrometry , solid phase microextraction , analytical chemistry (journal) , benzene , detection limit , cartridge , gas chromatography , gas chromatography–mass spectrometry , mechanical engineering , organic chemistry , engineering
A new method for the determination of benzene at trace levels in air is presented. The method consists of the collection of air samples on adsorbent cartridges with simultaneous adsorption of pre‐established amounts of D 6 ‐labeled internal standard. Desorption from the cartridge is performed by solid‐phase microextraction (SPME) with analysis by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) using an ion trap mass spectrometer. The influence of several parameters (type of SPME fiber, temperature, time, for example) was investigated, and good linearity in the range 10–400 ng of C 6 D 6 , with a coefficient of variance (CV) around 3–5%, was obtained. The method was tested by sampling air in a town center in Italy, and a benzene concentration of approximately 50 µg/m 3 was determined. The maximum limit recommended by the European Community is 10 µg/m 3 . Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.