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Published on: May 25, 2021
Recovery of some common solvents from protective clothing breakthrough indicator pads by microwave-solvent extraction
E Vo1, S P Berardinelli, R C Hall
1National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Division of Safety Research, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA.
Abstract:
The efficiency of solvent adsorption using Permea-Tec general solvent pads, used for the detection of chemical breakthrough of protective clothing, was determined for methanol, acetone, ethyl methyl ketone, trichloroethylene (TriCE), tetrachloroethylene (TetCE), toluene, m-xylene, and D-limonene. Known volumes of single or mixed solvents were added to pads in the range 0.2-5.0 microliters (0.16-8.13 micrograms). After microwave-solvent extraction (ME) into hexan-1-ol, the samples (0.5-3.0 microliters) of the filtered and extracted solutions were analyzed by gas chromatography. All solvents exhibited > 97% adsorption on the pads at spiking levels of 0.48-0.98 microgram for each solvent. The solvent recovery for the system was calculated for each solvent, with solvents with boiling points below 110 degrees C showing recoveries of > 90%, and with solvents with boiling points above 110 degrees C showing recoveries from 80 to 90%. The recovery precision was good (RSD < or = 4%) for all solvents over the range 1.0-2.5 microliters of applied solvents to pads for ME and 1.0 microliter of extracted solutions for GC analysis.
