SEDL / STP / STP1102-EB / STP17600S

Direct Sample-to-Column Purging with Whole Column Cryotrapping (P/WCC) for the Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds in Water

Pankow, JF
Professor and ChairmanGraduate Research Assistant, Oregon Graduate Institute, Beaverton, OR

Rounds, SA
Professor and ChairmanGraduate Research Assistant, Oregon Graduate Institute, Beaverton, OR

Pages: 9    Published: Jan 1991

Download this paper for $25 PDF (116K)          View License Agreement
Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) ranging from chloromethane to chlorinated benzenes can be determined simply and easily by the P/WCC method. In P/WCC, a sample is purged directly to a fused silica capillary column. During the purging, the column (e.g., 0.32 mm i.d. DB-624) is maintained under whole column cryotrapping conditions. A water trap which condenses water minimizes the transfer of water to the column. P/WCC provides for the quantitative transfer of even the most volatile analytes to the column. (In purge and trap, very volatile analytes can break through the trap and be lost.) The simplicity of P/WCC minimizes blank levels; WCC permits very high chromatographic efficiency. Applications involving detection by mass spectrometry (MS) and an electron capture detector (ECD) are discussed. When using an ECD in the analysis of a 5 mL sample volume, then for o-dichlorobenzene, 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, and 1,2,4,5-tetrachlorobenzene, P/WCC will give detection limits of 0.01, 0.003, and 0.0006 ng/mL, respectively.