Innovative Monitoring of Atmospheric Gaseous Hydrogen Fluoride.
Hydrogen fluoride (HF) is a basic raw material for a wide variety of industrial products, with a worldwide production capacity of more than three million metric tonnes. A novel method for determining particulate fluoride and gaseous hydrogen fluoride in air is presented herewith. Air was sampled using miniaturised 13 mm Swinnex two-stage filter holders in a medium-flow pumping system and through the absorption of particulate fluoride and HF vapours on cellulose ester filters uncoated or impregnated with sodium carbonate. Furthermore, filter desorption from the holders and the extraction of the pentafluorobenzyl ester derivative based on solid-phase microextraction were performed using an innovative robotic system installed on anxyzautosampler on-line with gas chromatography (GC)/mass spectrometry (MS). After generating atmospheres of a known concentration of gaseous HF, we evaluated the agreement between the results of our sampling method and those of the conventional preassembled 37 mm cassette (±8.10%; correlation coefficient: 0.90). In addition, precision (relative standard deviation forn= 10, 4.3%), sensitivity (0.2μg/filter), and linearity (2.0-4000μg/filter; correlation coefficient: 0.9913) were also evaluated. This procedure combines the efficiency of GC/MS systems with the high throughput (96 samples/day) and the quantitative accuracy of pentafluorobenzyl bromide on-sample derivatisation.
Laboratorio di Igiene e Tossicologia Industriale, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi, Largo P. Palagi 1, 50100 Firenze, Italy.
Stefano
0000-0002-3078-7188
S
Dugheri
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, University of Florence, Largo G.A. Brambilla 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy.
Alessandro
A
Bonari
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, University of Florence, Largo G.A. Brambilla 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy.
Ilenia
I
Pompilio
Fondazione per la Ricerca e l'Innovazione, Polo Scientifico, Via Madonna del Piano 6, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
Alessandro
A
Monti
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, University of Florence, Largo G.A. Brambilla 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy.
Nicola
0000-0003-0579-1035
N
Mucci
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, University of Florence, Largo G.A. Brambilla 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy.
Giulio
G
Arcangeli