Technique for monitoring ozone precursor hydrocarbons in air at photochemical assessment monitoring stations: Sorbent preconcentration, closed-cycle cooler cryofocusing, and GC-FID analysis

An automated gas chromatograph (autoGC) system that may be used to collect and analyze both polar and nonpolar volatile organic compounds in ambient air has been evaluated. This system combines the use of dual multiadsorbent traps for sampling 57 min h−1 at ambient temperature, a dry helium purge to remove residual water from the sorbents, thermal desorption of analytes onto a Stirling-cooled trap for refocusing, and GC-flame ionization detection (FID). Method detection limits (MDLs), linearity, cleanliness, precision, and accuracy of the autoGC were determined for a set of 57 ozone precursor hydrocarbons. For most of the compounds tested, MDLs were less than 0.40 ppbv, the FID response was linear over the 5–40-ppbv range, and the trap-to-trap precision was ± 10%. This autoGC was found to be a reliable system that would be suitable for use in field sites such as the Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Stations network, which is being implemented in the United States of America.