Development of diffusive solid phase microextraction method for sampling of epichlorohydrin in air

Abstract

Epichlorohydrin is used frequently in many industrial processes. Exposure to this pollutant could induce harmful effects. The present work developed a novel solid phase microextraction (SPME) method for time weighted average determination of epichlorohydrin in the air by GC/MS. CAR/PDMS in 0.5 cm retracted mode was selected and the effect of environmental parameters on sampling properties of SPME was examined. Experimental sampling rate for epichlorohydrin (8.89 × 10⁻³ cm³/min) was slightly less than theoretical value (9.059 × 10⁻³ cm³/min). There was no significant difference among sampling rates at different temperature and velocities but relative humidity had a significant effect on the sampling rate. Limit of detection for SPME method was 0.8 ng per sample, which is good enough in comparison with the NIOSH 1010 method. Comparison of the results between the developed SPME and the NIOSH 1010 method on standard test atmosphere and field showed satisfactory agreement (y = 1.162x + 1.8 r ² = 0.992 and y = 1.009x+0.76 r ² = 0.98 respectively).

Keywords:

• epichlorohydrin
• air sampling
• SPME
• gas chromatography mass spectrometry