European Interlaboratory Comparison of Passive Samplers for Organic Vapour Monitoring in Indoor Air

AN INTERLABORATORY EXPERIMENT WAS MADE WITH THE AIM OF TESTING PASSIVE SAMPLERS FOR VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN INDOOR AIR AND, AT THE SAME TIME, EVALUATING THE AGREEMENT AMONG DIFFERENT LABORATORIES IN SUCH DETERMINATIONS. MANY 3M OVM-3500 PASSIVE SAMPLERS WERE EXPOSED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN A LARGE TEST CHAMBER TO THE VAPOURS OF 1-BUTANOL, PENTANAL, 1.1.2-TRICHLOROETHANE, 1-OCTENE, BUTYLACETATE, 3-HEPTANONE, 1.2-XYLENE, A-PINENE AND N-DECANE. LOTS OF THREE SAMPLERS WERE MAILED TO THE PARTICIPATING LABORATORIES, THREE OF WHICH EXPOSED ALSO THEIR ACTIVE SAMPLERS FOR THERMAL DESORPTION. PENTANAL IS SUBSTANTIALLY UNDERESTIMATED WITH PASSIVE SAMPLERS, PROBABLY BECAUSE OF IRREVERSIBLE ADSORPTION. IF THIS COMPOUND IS EXCLUDED, THE DISPERSION OF THE RESULTS FROM THE SIX LABORATORIES ANALYZING THE OVM-3500 SAMPLERS IS QUANTIFIED WITH A STANDARD DEVIATION OF 13%. THE COMPARISON BETWEEN PASSIVE AND ACTIVE SAMPLERS SHOWS A GOOD AGREEMENT FOR APOLAR COMPOUNDS, WHEREAS THE ACTIVE SAMPLING METHOD GIVES 10-50% HIGHER VALUES FOR POLAR COMPOUNDS.

DE BORTOLI Maurizio;  MOLHAVE Lars;  ULLRICH Detlef; 

1995-03-15

European Commission

JRC4156

EUR 10487 EN,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC4156,