Development of a personal monitoring method for nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide with Sep-Pak C₁₈ cartridge sampling and ion chromatographic determination

Abstract

Personal monitoring methods for the determination of hourly integrated concentrations of NO₂ and SO₂ in ambient air have been developed. Triethanolamine (TEA)-impregnated C₁₈ Sep-Pak cartridges were used to collect NO₂ and SO₂ simultaneously. After sampling, NO₂ and SO₂ as their nitrite, nitrate, sulfite and sulfate analogues were stripped from the cartridges with a solution of 5% methanol in distilled, deionized water (DDW) and then determined by ion chromatography. Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the sampling rate, collection and recovery efficiencies, breakthrough volumes, absorption capacity, interference and sample stability on the cartridge during storage. NO₂ and SO₂ detection limits of 0.3 and 0.4 ppb respectively for 1 h samples were obtained. Recoveries for both NO₂ and SO₂ exceeded 85%.

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