Evaluation of an ambient air sampling system for tritium (as tritiated water vapor) using silica gel adsorbent columns

Ambient air samples for tritium analysis (as the tritiated water vapor [HTO] content of atmospheric moisture) are collected for the Hanford Site Surface Environmental Surveillance Project (SESP) using the solid adsorbent silica gel. The silica gel has a moisture sensitive indicator which allows for visual observation of moisture movement through a column. Despite using an established method, some silica gel columns showed a complete change in the color indicator for summertime samples suggesting that breakthrough had occurred; thus a series of tests was conducted on the sampling system in an environmental chamber. The purpose of this study was to determine the maximum practical sampling volume and overall collection efficiency for water vapor collected on silica gel columns. Another purpose was to demonstrate the use of an impinger-based system to load water vapor onto silica gel columns to provide realistic analytical spikes and blanks for the Hanford Site SESP. Breakthrough volumes (V{sub b}) were measured and the chromatographic efficiency (expressed as the number of theoretical plates [N]) was calculated for a range of environmental conditions. Tests involved visual observations of the change in the silica gel`s color indicator as a moist air stream was drawn through the column, measurement of themore » amount of a tritium tracer retained and then recovered from the silica gel, and gravimetric analysis for silica gel columns exposed in the environmental chamber.« less