Combination of sorption tube sampling and thermal desorption with hollow waveguide FT-IR spectroscopy for atmospheric trace gas analysis: determination of atmospheric ethene at the lower ppb level.
The determination of organic trace gases in the ambient environment at the lower ppb level is demonstrated based on a novel technique combining sorption tube sampling on Molsieve and Carbosieve S-III, thermal desorption, and detection of the trace analyte by hollow waveguide Fourier transform infrared (HWG-FT-IR) spectroscopy. While ethene concentrations of approximately 5 ppm can be directly observed using HWG-FT-IR, enrichment factors of up to 5000 were achieved by sorption tube sampling and thermal desorption. Detection limits of approximately 1 ppb are reported. Efficient enrichment by the sampling tube is achieved due to the favorable internal volume ( approximately 0.4 cm(3) at a length of 470 mm) of the hollow waveguide serving as a miniaturized gas cell. This new method was validated for ethene by thermodesorption-cryofocusing-GC-FID as the reference method. Analytical performance has been compared for standard gas mixtures and for ethene measurements in urban air. Finally, ethene data from a sampling campaign at two alpine sites in Tyrol/Austria are presented.
Pogodina
Olga A
OA
Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics, Vienna University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9/164, A-1060 Vienna, Austria.
Pustogov
Victor V
VV
de Melas
Fabiano
F
Haberhauer-Troyer
Christina
C
Rosenberg
Erwin
E
Puxbaum
Hans
H
Inberg
Alexandra
A
Croitoru
Nathan
N
Mizaikoff
Boris
B