3. Results and discussion
The selection of 2-nitrophenol and 3-fluoraniline as the emitted
VOCs was done for a number of reasons. The primary reason for the
selection of each VOC was their inherent unlikeliest occurrence in a
natural microbiological system. By an evaluation of the scientific
literature it was determined unlikely that a fluorine-containing
VOC would be naturally occurring in this microbiological system;
similarly, it was also considered highly improbable that
2-nitrophenol would naturally occur in this microbiological
system. In additional preliminary experimental analysis also
confirmed that both 2-nitrophenol and 3-fluoroaniline were
volatile and could be analysed by headspace SPME-GC–MS. The
VOCs 2-nitrophenol and 3-fluoroaniline were separated and
identified by both mass spectra and retention times. 2-Nitrophenol
and 3-fluoroaniline displayed linearity over a six point concentration
range of 0.5–100mg ml1 and 0.25–20mg ml1
, respectively,
with correlation coefficients exceeding 0.99 for both VOCs