The Feasibility of Using Solid Sorbent Packed Minitubes for the Analysis of Aqueous Organics

Abstract : A study was conducted to determine the feasibility of analyzing trace levels of organics in water, by adsorption onto a solid sorbent packed minitube followed by thermal desorption-gas chromatographic analysis. The study included: selecting appropriate sorbents, determining the optimum thermal desorption temperature, performing wet/dry experiments, choosing the optimum drying conditions and measuring analyte breakthrough (or capacity) of the minitubes. Experimental results with methyl salicylate and Chromosorb 102 yielded breakthrough volumes in excess of 50 millimeters, indicating that this could be an extremely sensitive method for the analysis of organics in water.