(2016) Microchemical Journal_Characterization of quality assurance properties of biogenic volatile organic compounds with an emphasis on the breakthrough behavior, recovery, and temporal stability

Ahn J.-H., Kim K.-H., Szulejko J.E., Kwon E.E., Deep A.

(Elsevier Inc.) Microchemical Journal ISSN: 0026265X Vol.125 Issue. Article No. DOI: 10.1016/j.microc.2015.11.016

In this research, we investigated the breakthrough volume (BTV) and temporal performance of two types of sorbent tube (ST) sorbent beds toward 10 (target) biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) ((1) isoprene, (2) (+)-α-pinene, (3) camphene, (4) (+)-β-pinene, (5) (+)-3-carene, (6) α-phellandrene, (7) α-terpinene, (8) (R)-(+)-limonene, (9) γ-terpinene, and (10) p-cymene) and two (reference) anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (AVOCs) ((11) benzene and (12) toluene). The analysis of their vaporized liquid-phase working standards was carried out using thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC/MS). To this end, the performance of two ST types (CC (Carbopack C) and CBX (Carbopack C, Carbopack B, and Carbopack X)) was tested as a function of a few key variables, e.g., sorbent type, N₂ gas purge volume, and sampling temperature. The CBX ST gave recoveries of 100±10 % at 60°C for two BVOCs (camphene and α-terpinene). However, three compounds (isoprene, (+)-α-pinene, and (+)-β-pinene) showed poor recoveries (0.7, 59.3, and 11.3%, respectively), whilst p-cymene recorded an excess recovery (~190%). In contrast, for the CC ST, BT for (+)-α-pinene and camphene increased with purge volume, while isoprene was not detected. Accordingly, the range of BTV 5% and BTV 50% values (L/g) for each compound with CC ST were 1.7 (toluene)-17 (camphene) and 15 (toluene)-570 ((+)-α-pinene), respectively. In summary, a three-bed CBX with the higher BTV is the preferred choice for environmental sampling for a wide range of BVOCs compared to a one-bed CC ST. The recovery of CBX ST for 10 out of 12 analytes (after 150 reconditioning/loading/TD cycles) remained constant in terms of response factor, while the response factors of isoprene and β-pinene were highly variable. Both the present work and the reported literature recoveries showed similar and divergent results which are discussed in terms of high temperature on-sorbent reactions. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (Grant No. 2013-004624 ). This work was also carried out with the support of the “ Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project title: Study on model development to control odor from pigpen, Project No. PJ01052101 )” Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea. The fourth author also acknowledges support made by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean Government (MSIP) (No. 2914RA1A004893 ).