Full Automation of the ASTM D8591 (FTOH in Test Chamber Air) Workflow with a Novel Fully Automated Liquid Standard Handling ApproachAir Monitoring, Methods, and Technology
Oral Presentation
Prepared by K. Thaxton1, J. Whitecavage2, J. Stuff3, J. Vandenberg1
1 - GERSTEL GmbH, 1 Eberhard Gerstel Platz, Muelheim an der Ruhr, NRW, 45473, Germany
2 - GERSTEL Inc., 701 Digital Drive Suite J, Linthicum Heights, MD, 21090, United States
3 - GERSTEL Inc., 701 Digital Drive Suite J, Product Manager, Linthicum, MD, 21090, United States
Contact Information: [email protected]; 14438334458
ABSTRACT
Fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOH’s) and related volatile PFAS species are the focus of investigations into indoor air quality. Over the last several years, ASTM’s D22.05 committee has developed both a guide and a method to help researchers and regulators assess exposure to these species.
Although the FTOH method is robust and is currently being validated via a round robin test, the preparation of standards and samples can be laborious due to the method’s need for spiking standards and internal standards, manually as liquids, onto thermal desorption (TD) tubes. For example, the round robin requires a minimum of nineteen tubes to be run, and all must be spiked once or several times with internal or external standards, respectively.
Fortunately liquid spiking of standards onto TD tubes can be part of a fully automated FTOH workflow using a recently developed addition to a TD-GC-MS autosampler. This talk will explain how this automated workflow not only reduces analyst time, but also provides more reliable results and improves precision; improved precision also results in improved detection limits.
