Trace Analysis of PAH’s and PCB’s in Soil through On-Line Direct Thermal Desorption

Abstract

App Note 3/1994

Thermal desorption is a well known technique for the analysis of volatile organic contaminants in air and normally employs adsorption on porous polymers. This operation principle can also be adapted for the direct thermal desorption of volatiles within a wide boiling range directly from soil samples. In this paper the potential of a newly developed thermal desorption system for direct desorption and analysis of volatiles from soil samples is discussed and demonstrated. It will be shown that the combination of thermal desorption with an intermediate cryofocusing step in the inlet liner of a cooled injection system (CIS/PTV) is a reliable and fast method for the determination of volatiles even with such high boiling points associated with PAHs and PCBs