REAL TIME MONITORING OF VOCS AND INORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN AMBIENT AIR BY ION MOLECULE REACTION - MASS SPECTROMETRY: A POTENTIAL ALTERNATIVE TOOL TO REFERENCE METHODS

The analysis of VOCs and inorganic gaseous pollutants is a major demand in understanding air quality and the climate change. Current reference methods are mainly offline methods, i.e. passive sampling, preconcentration steps prior to the analysis. They allow the interpretation of environmental conditions as averages over hours, days or even longer periods. The authors present a technology that is based on IMR-MS (ion molecule reaction - mass spectrometry) that allows the simultaneous real time monitoring of hazardous components, like benzene, toluene, butadiene, styrene, chlorinated components, nitrogen dioxide, hydrogen sulfide etc.. Typical time of analysis at ppt up to ppm - concentrations is one second for each molecule avoiding any kind of passive sample collection and -pretreatment. Example 1 shows results of online monitoring by IMR-MS of the VOCs benzene and vinylchloride in ambient air in comparison with offline US-EPA TO-15 (GC-MS) method at Environmental Research and Training Center (ERTC) in Pathumthani, Thailand. Example 2 describes environmental monitoring using IMR-MS of various organic and inorganic volatile pollutants from heavy industries (refineries) in Sicily, Italy in comparison with classical single component monitors. In summary not only in Asia but all over the world it is a today's major demand to better understand the quality of air and IMR-MS has a contribution to offer.