Laboratory evaluation of an aldehyde scrubber system specifically for the detection of acrolein

We demonstrate the use of an aldehyde scrubber system to resolve isobaric aldehyde/alkene interferences in a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) by selectively removing the aldehydes from the gas mixture without loss of quantitative information for the alkene components. The aldehyde scrubber system uses a bisulfite solution, which scrubs carbonyl compounds from the gas stream by forming water-soluble carbonyl bisulfite addition products, and has been evaluated using a synthetic mixture of acrolein and isoprene. Trapping efficiencies of acrolein exceeded 97%, whereas the transmission efficiency of isoprene was better than 92%. Quantification of the PTR-MS response to acrolein was validated through an intercomparison study that included two derivatization methods, dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) and O-(4-cyano-2-ethoxybenzyl)hydroxylamine (CNET), and a spectroscopic method using a quantum cascade laser infrared absorption spectroscopy (QCL) instrument. Finally, using cigarette smoke as a complex matrix, the acrolein content was assessed using the scrubber and compared with direct QCL-based detection.