ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To establish a method for simultaneously detecting methyl methacrylate, ethyl methacrylate, n-propyl methacrylate and butyl methacrylate in workplace air by a portable gas chromatography-mass spectrometer(GC-MS) technique. METHODS: The portable GC-MS hand-held probe was used for sampling and detection. Samples were separated with DB-5 rapid chromatographic column in order to maintain retention time and characteristics of the ions, and quantified by standard curve method. RESULTS: The linear correlation of this method was higher than 0.999 0. The minimum detection concentration was 0.03-0.06 mg/m~3, and the minimum quantitation concentration was 0.10-0.20 mg/m~3. The standard recovery rate was 82.22%-91.24%. The within-run and the between-run relative standard deviation were 7.67%-14.63% and 10.40%-13.79% respectively. CONCLUSION: The portable GC-MS technique could be used for qualitative and quantitative detection of above-mentioned four methylacrylate compounds in workplace air.