Determination of dimethyl sulphate in air by gas chromatography with flame photometric detection

Abstract A rapid and precise analytical method for the determining of dimethyl sulphate in air, involving sampling with a Florisil adsorption tube and determining of the amount of desorbed dimethyl sulphate by gas chromatography using a flame photometric detector for the detection of sulphur, is described. The application of a flame photometric detector for sulphur detection serves as a simple gas chromatographic procedure which does not require the derivatization of dimethyl sulphate and solvent flashing techniques. The coefficients of variation including the desorption of dimethyl sulphate from the Florisil tube are 2.70–3.65%. The detection limit for a sample size of 101 and an injection volume of 1.0 μl is 0.03 ppm of dimethyl sulphate in air.