Development of a Moisture Pretreatment Device for the Accurate Quantitation of Water-Soluble Volatile Organic Compounds in Air

• Published in: Chemosensors Vol. 11; no. 3; p. 188
• Main Authors: Lee, Sang-Woo, Dinh, Trieu-Vuong, Park, Shin-Young, Choi, In-Young, Kim, In-Young, Park, Byeong-Gyu, Baek, Da-Hyun, Park, Jae-Hyung, Seo, Ye-Bin, Kim, Jo-Chun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.03.2023
• Subjects: Acetic acid; Air monitoring; Benzene; Butyl acetate; Chemical bonds; Chemical properties; Chromatography; Cold; cooler; Ethyl benzene; Ethylbenzene; Flow velocity; Gas chromatography; Humidity; Hydrocarbons; Hydrogen bonds; Isobutanol; Ketones; KPASS; Methyl ethyl ketone; Methyl isobutyl ketone; Moisture effects; moisture removal; Nafion; Odor; Odors; p-Xylene; PID sensor; Pollution monitoring; Pretreatment; Quantitation; Recovery; Sensors; Styrene; Toluene; VOCs; Volatile organic compounds; Washers & dryers; Water chemistry; Xylene; South Korea
• ISSN: 2227-9040; 2227-9040
• DOI: 10.3390/chemosensors11030188

In air pollutant monitoring using sensors, moisture can adversely affect the analytical accuracy of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Therefore, a new moisture pretreatment device (KPASS–Odor) for analyzing VOCs in the air was developed, based on frost and created by a desublimation process inside a cold tube. The performance of KPASS–Odor was compared with conventional devices (i.e., a NafionTM dryer and a cooler) through the measurements of low water-soluble VOCs (i.e., benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, p-xylene, and styrene) and relatively high ones (i.e., methyl-ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, butyl acetate, and isobutyl alcohol) using gas chromatography (GC) and sensor methods. Regarding the GC method, the recovery rates for KPASS–Odor and the cooler were >95% and >80%, respectively, at a flow rate of 500 mL/min for all compounds. For the NafionTM dryer, the recovery rates differed between low and high water-soluble compounds, which exhibited the rates ≥88% and ≤86%, respectively. In terms of the sensor method, the VOC recovery rates of KPASS–Odor and the NafionTM dryer were found to be >90% and <50%, respectively. Therefore, KPASS–Odor was determined to be the most suitable moisture pretreatment device for highly soluble VOCs of concern in this study.