Organic micropollutants in air and water. Sampling, gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis and computer...

Organic micropollutants are sampled by dynamic enrichment on a porous polymer column and subsequently thermally eluted in a flow of helium. The eluted compounds enter gas chromatograph inlet and then pass into two parallel glass capillary columns with different stationary phases, in which they are separated. The separated compounds are detected by gas chromatographic (GC) detectors and by a mass spectrometer that is connected to one or other of the two capillary columns by "heart cutting" systems. The GC and mass spectrometric (MS) signals are fed via interfaces into a minicomputer which controls the MS scan and performs data acquisition, reduction and treatment on-line and off-line. The resulting GC and MS data are displayed on a line printer or a visual display unit. The minicomputer is connected by a telephone line to an IBM 370/165 computer, where a library search system has been implemented. Some difficulties encountered, data on the sampling recovery of model compounds and the identification of compounds in air and water samples by GC-MS data and library searches are discussed.