13C of volatile organic compounds (VOCS) in airborne samples by thermal desorption-gas chromatography-isotope ratio-mass specrometry (TD-GC-IR-MS)

Turner, Nicole and Jones, Mark and Grice, Kliti and Dawson, Daniel and Ioppolo-Armanios, Marisa and Fisher, Steven. 2006. 13C of volatile organic compounds (VOCS) in airborne samples by thermal desorption-gas chromatography-isotope ratio-mass specrometry (TD-GC-IR-MS). Atmospheric Environment. 40: pp. 3381-3388.

Source Title

Atmospheric Environment

DOI

10.1016/j.atmosenv.2006.01.030

ISSN

13522310

Faculty

Centre for Applied Organic Geochemistry (COE)

Faculty of Science and Engineering

School

Centre for Applied Organic Geochemistry (COE )

Remarks

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39840

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

This paper is a preliminary investigation into the use of a thermal desorption-gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (TD-GC-IR-MS) method to determine stable carbon isotopic compositions (d13C) of low molecular-weight volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in airborne samples (e.g. industrial and car exhaust emissions) as a means of differentiating their sources in the environment. A TD-GC-IR-MS method for obtaining d13C of VOCs (benzene, toluene,chlorobenzene, ethylbenzene, m-xylene and propylbenzene) in air samples has been optimised, and is proven to be both reproducible and linear. The d13C of the VOC standards was found to be comparable (within analytical error) to that obtained from direct GC-IR-MS analysis. This novel method of VOC analysis is valuable in environmental and forensic investigations.