APPLICABILITY: This method has been used for the characterization of environments containing mixtures of volatile organic compounds
(See Table 1). The sampling has been conducted using multi-bed thermal desorption tubes. The analysis procedure has been able to
identify a wide range of organic compounds, based on operator expertise and library searching.
INTERFERENCES: Compounds which coelute on the chromatographic column may present an interference in the identification of each
compound. By appropriate use of background subtraction, the mass spectrometrist may be able to obtain more representative spectra
of each compound and provide a tentative identity (See Table 1).
OTHER METHODS: Other methods have been published for the determination of specific compounds in air by thermal desorption/gas
chromatography [1-3]. One of the primary differences in these methods is the sorbents used in the thermal desorption tubes