Sampling and analysis techniques for trace volatile organic emissions from consumer products

Comparisons are made of two techniques for the trace analysis of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from consumer products: direct on-line sampling and analysis and on-line solid sorbent collection followed by off-line analysis. Two types of direct analyses are examined. The first consists of direct injection of emissions from a sample loaded environmental chamber into a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector (FID) for compound identification. Direct injection of headspace collected emissions into a gas chromatograph equipped with a mass selective detector is the second direct method scrutinized. The more traditional technique of solid sorbent collection of the volatile organic emissions followed by thermal desorption (TD)/gas chromatographic (GC)/mass spectrometric (MS) analysis is compared to both direct on-line methods.