A novel portable grab sampler for tritiated water vapor.

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the applicability of a recently developed portable high-throughput liquid-absorption air sampler for measuring tritiated water vapor concentrations in nuclear facilities. A procedure for sampling tritiated water with a portable high-throughput liquid-absorption air sampler and measuring its concentration in air was developed with the aid of a theoretical model. Tritium concentrations in the air of a heavy water reactor currently being decommissioned, derived from samples obtained with a portable high-throughput liquid-absorption air sampler, a bubbler, and a cold trap, yielded comparable results, suggesting the applicability of the portable high-throughput liquid-absorption air sampler to tritium grab sampling.

Detection of airborne cocaine and heroin by high-throughput liquid-absorption preconcentration and liquid chromatography-electrochemical detection.

A high-throughput liquid-absorption preconcentrator (HTLAP) for rapid and/or ultrasensitive detection and analysis of trace contaminants samples air at a rate of 600-700 l/min and collects analytes from vapors or aerosols at an efficiency of 40-60% into a small volume of liquid absorbent dripping at a rate of 0.1-2 ml/min. These features combine to reduce the lower detection limit (LDL) of available analytical instrumentation by a factor of > 1000 and/or to permit faster sampling and far more rapid on-site air monitoring than were previously practicable. LDLs of ca. 1:10(13) (v/v) of alkaloids have been achieved with LC and electrochemical detection. The HTLAP is directly adaptable to most liquid-phase analyzers. The small rate of liquid collection is also compatible with available interfaces to mass spectrometers. Moreover, the HTLAP permits detection and quantitation of polar or highly reactive compounds that cannot be readily analyzed by conventional preconcentration and GC.

Simple permeation absorber for sampling and preconcentrating hazardous air contaminants.

A permeation absorber was developed and experimentally evaluated for sampling and preconcentrating vapors of a primary aromatic amine into a small volume (ca. 0.1 ml) of a liquid extractant that can be directly injected into a chromatograph or other analytical instrument. Starting with 1-l or 4-l samples containing dry or humidified air (0, 7% or 35% relative humidity) and 0.5-5 parts per million by volume of aniline, the measured collection efficiency (fraction of aniline recovered in the extractant) ranged between 60 and 100% when the samples were recirculated 3-6 times. For a single-pass non-recirculating mode, the collection efficiency is calculated to be 40-50%. The degree of preconcentration is directly proportional to the volume V of the sampled air. The collection method is simple and fast and should also be applicable to the sampling and preconcentration of other hazardous air contaminants.

Portable instrumentation for on - site analysis of toxic vapors

The center for Environmental Research at Argonne National Laboratory has developed a versatile toxic vapor analyzer. This instrument, the chemical Parameter Spectrometer (CPS-100), was designed to detect, identify, and monitor any one of 26 - compounds strored in the library, which itself may be update or expanded (perhaps to >50 compounds). Implementation of such an algorithm would effectively expanded the library size and would still provide the user with sufficient data (perhaps class identification of compounds) so as to assess many potential hazards on the spot.The reliability of such a algorithm for "hazard classification" has been evaluated and compared to the present algorithms which selectively identify unknow vapors.(AU)