Determination of vinyl acetate in air by gas chromatography

A gas chromatographic analysis for vinyl acetate is presented. Vinyl acetate was sampled by adsorbing on activated carbon. It was desorbed with carbon disulfide with a mean efficiency of 83.0%. The analytical column was packed with 10% free fatty acid phase on acid-washed Chromosorb-P. Gas chromatographic identification was also conducted on another column packed with 0.4% Carbowax-1500 on Carbopack A. Analysis was performed on a chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector. The precision (coefficient of variation) for the analytical procedure using a free fatty acid phase column was 4.0%. Based on a 10 litre air sample, the calculated limit of detection by this procedure was 0.1 parts per million.