Ye-Jin Choi

The effects of sampling materials selection in the collection of reduced sulfur compounds in air

In this study, the analytical bias in the measurements of reduced sulfur compounds (RSC) was investigated in terms of sorptive loss caused by the materials selected for the sample introduction. For the purpose of this study, three vacuum samplers made in the combination of different vacuuming efficiencies (e.g., rapid versus slow sampling) and different materials (i.e., Teflon versus stainless steel (SS)) were tested to evaluate the sampling recovery rate (RR) for five RSCs: H(2)S, CH(3)SH, DMS, CS(2) and DMDS. To make a parallel comparison of RR, the RSC standard samples contained in one bag were transferred to another bag using each sampling system. Their relative contents between, before, and after the transfer were then evaluated between different samplers to assess the sampling bias caused by the interaction between RSC and the sampling material. In the case of the most reactive compound, H(2)S, the sampling loss from the SS inlet line amounted to as high as 45%, while that for the Teflon counterpart was almost insignificant. When the sampling time was arbitrarily elongated (i.e., use of a slow sampler), the sampling loss rate of the SS inlet sampler became more significant with the RR values dropping down from 55 to 70%, across different RSCs. The overall results of our comparative study indicate that the sampling system for the reactive gaseous compounds should be checked for the material feasibility to guarantee sufficient analytical reliability.

Comparative analysis of bias in the collection of airborne pollutants: Tests on major aromatic VOC using three types of sorbent-based methods

This study was undertaken to establish one of the most reliable sampling methods and to precisely evaluate the bias involved in the collection of airborne pollutant samples. For the purpose of our study, we investigated the performance of three different types of sampling techniques by measuring major aromatic volatile organic compounds (VOC) in outdoor air; the target analytes specifically include benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (commonly called BTEX). As the first step of our approach, we designed and developed a multi-channel sampling system consisting of a six-port mass flow controller (SJU-MFC) system. Because this system allowed the collection of up to six replicate samples, our measurement results were analyzed and screened statistically for the derivation of high-quality BTEX data. The feasibility of this sampling system was further tested through a comparison with concurrent measurement data sets obtained by two additional, but independent, sampling techniques: (1) automatic continuous sampler (ACS) and (2) on-line GC (O-GC) system. Based on the data sets collected concurrently by three different sampling methods, we attempted to evaluate the compatibility of sampling techniques. Although the results obtained by SJU-MFC system were not statistically different from those of the O-GC system, they were moderately distinguishable from those of ACS. Such patterns were seen consistently, when examined by correlation analysis. The overall results of our study thus generally point out that the compatibility of data sets, when the proper caution is taken, improve significantly among different sampling methodologies.