AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
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Assessment of Acrolein in Air Samples Using Pentaflurophenylhydrazine (PFPH) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS)
Anthony Cutler, TOKALA CHRISTENSEN, Jenna Nelson, Hansina Hill, Odelle Hadley, Robin Bond, The Evergreen State College
Abstract Number: 884 Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract Acrolein is a respiratory irritant and common Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) emitted during combustion. Anthropogenic and natural sources include cooking meat and oil, residential wood and oil heating, diesel combustion and wildfires. Due to potential impacts on public health, accurately measuring acrolein concentrations in ambient air is a high priority. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses Method TO-15 to quantify ambient acrolein concentrations. Method TO-15 collects air samples in Suma canisters which are subsequently analyzed with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS). This method may produce significant positive biases due to interferences during analysis, as well as discrepancies in canister cleaning and turn-around time between sample collection and analysis. The Eastern Research Group (ERG) provides air toxics sample analysis for the EPA and currently identifies the acrolein Method Detection Limit (MDL) to be 0.120 ppbv (0.28 μg/m3). This is 14 times higher than the EPA’s inhalation reference concentration (RfC) for safe levels of acrolein in air (0.02 μg/m3). Previous studies have demonstrated that Tenax-TA sorbent coated with pentafluorophenylhydrazine (PFPH) as a derivatizing agent and followed by GC-MS analysis produces low MDLs and may be effectively used to quantify ambient carbonyl concentrations. This study presents the development of a PFPH/GC-MS method specifically optimized for acrolein analysis. The air sample collection tubes were designed to be compatible with the Xontech 925 carbonyl sampler. The Xontech 925 was collocated with a Xontech 910, used for canister sampling, in Lacey, WA between summer 2018 and 2019. The canister samples were analyzed by ERG following Method TO-15. Acrolein samples collected in summer 2019 and analyzed using the new method were compared and evaluated against results obtained from ERG.