Development of an automatic sampling device for the continuous measurement of atmospheric carbonyls compounds

Two sampling strategies were studied to develop an automatic instrument for the continuous measurement of atmospheric carbonyl compounds. Because of its specificity towards carbonyls compounds, sampling by using a transfer of gaseous phase in a liquid phase associated with a simultaneous chemical derivatization of the trapped compounds was first studied. However, this method do not allow a quantitative sampling of all studied carbonyl compounds, nor a continuous measurement in the field. To overcome the difficulties, a second strategy was investigated: the cryogenic adsorption onto solid adsorbent followed by thermodesorption and a direct analysis by GC/MS. Collection efficiency using different solid adsorbents was found greater than 95% for carbonyl compounds consisting of 1 to 7 carbons. This work is a successful first step towards the realization of the automatic sampling device for a continuous measurement of atmospheric carbonyls compounds. (author)