Radial Passive samplers for air quality monitoring in field comparison with a BTEX automatic analyser – Preliminary Results

15 November 2019

Angiuli, L., Bruno, P., Caputi, M., Caselli, M., de Gennaro, G., de Rienzo, M.

Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 2003, 12(10), 1167-1172

The more frequent usage of passive sampling techniques in air quality monitoring campaigns demands for more control of the results obtained. This can be achieved by employing this sampling methodology in field studies, or at least by its comparison with reliable techniques, commonly used for monitoring of atmospheric pollutants. In this paper we evaluate the reliability of the results obtained by using radial symmetry diffusive samplers. In particular, we test radiello®, radial symmetry samplers for determining BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, (m+p)-xylene, (o)-xylene). The tests have been also performed to evaluate the reproducibility of measurements carried out with radiello® and to verify their constant uptake rate versus sampling time. BTEX analyses were performed by chemical desorption and GC-MS. Differences between benzene, toluene and o-xylene concentrations simultaneously measured with passive samplers and conventional automatic analysers (Chrompack CP-7001) were 16.5% on average. Concerning toluene and o-xylene, the differences were 24.0 and 22.5% lower, respectively.