Speciation of Volatile Aromatic and Chlorinated Hydrocarbons in an Urban Atmosphere Using TCT-GC/MS

Abstract

Several aromatic and chlorinated volatile hydrocarbons (VOCs) were measured in Vitoria-Gasteiz City (Spain) throughout the years 1999 and 2002 in order to find out the concentration of these pollutants in urban air. These VOCs were retained in Tenax TA, subsequently desorpted by using a thermal desorption cold trap injector (TCT), and thereafter analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). This analytical methodology permits the determination of 42 VOCs at very low concentrations, although only 32 of them were found in the urban air of the city (ranging from 205.51 to 0.01 μg m⁻³), with high reproducibility (%RSD lower than 10%). Twenty-four-hour samples were taken each sampling day to ascertain their total daily concentration, and rigorous quality controls were carried out to check the representativeness of sampling. Results of this exhaustive study show that toluene (T), xylenes (X), ethylbenzene (E), and benzene (B) were, respectively, the most abundant of these VOCs in the urban area during that period. The total concentration of BTEX represented, on average, more than 72.6% of the VOC total concentration, with the highest concentrations being reached in autumn, except for benzene and derived compounds (in winter). Benzene was the minority BTEX pollutant, its yearly mean concentration being less than the maximum established by the European Directive 2000/69/CE (5 μg m⁻³).

Keywords:

• VOCs
• BTEX
• TENAX
• TCT-GC-MS
• Urban area

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank the Environmental Department of the city council of Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) and the University of the Basque Country (Project UPV 171.125-EA188/98) for their financial support. We also thank Javier Alonso, field operator who collected the samples.