A method for determining the volati

A method for determining the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in textiles was developed,by the use of high capacity headspace, solid phase micro extraction (SPME) and gaschromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

The detection targets contained total
organic compounds (TVOCs) and six specific substances (toluene, vinylcyclohexene,
styrene, 4-phenylcyclohexene, vinylchloride and butadiene), according to Oeko-Tex Standard
100. A designed experiment was used to optimize the headspace–SPME–GC/MS
operation, and the method was validated in terms of linearity, limit of detection (LOD) and
method precision.

It was found that at a loading ratio of 10 m2/m3, the LODs for toluene,
vinylcyclohexene, styrene and 4-phenylcyclohexene were 0.0002 mg/m2, 0.01 mg/m2,
0.01 mg/m2 and 0.0001 mg/m2 respectively, while for vinylchloride and butadiene they
were both 0.08 mg/m2.

SPME exhibited better adsorption performance for toluene,
vinylcyclohexene, styrene and 4-phenylcyclohexene, for which the extraction fractions
were 10 times of those for vinylchloride and butadiene.

The method developed was
successfully applied to analyze several commercial textiles, and would be a simple, efficient
and promising technique for the analysis of volatile compounds from textiles or other
samples (such as polymer materials).