Screening for 171 Volatile Organic Air Pollutants Using GC/MS with Deconvolution Reporting Software and a New Indoor Air Toxics Library Application

A retention-time-locked mass spectral database was created specifically for indoor air analysis by thermal desorption/gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (TD/GC/MS). This Indoor Air Toxics Database contains locked retention times and mass spectra for 171 volatile and semivolatile organic compounds that are targets in various indoor air methods. In combination with Agilent's Deconvolution Reporting Software (DRS), it is possible to identify any of these compounds in just 2 to 3 minutes after a TD/GC/MS analysis. A key feature of DRS is the ability to deconvolute overlapping mass spectra so that unresolved GC peaks can be identified reliably. Agilent's DRS generates a report that combines results from three data analysis programs – the Agilent ChemStation, the Automated Mass Spectral Deconvolution and Identification System, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology MS Search Program. Air samples from an office building and a carpet warehouse were collected on Tenax TA-packed TD tubes and were analyzed by TD/GC/MS. Using the Indoor Air Toxics Database, DRS was able to identify more than 80 compounds in the office air and 102 in the carpet store air. Data analysis was automated and required about 3 minutes per sample to complete. Screening for 171 Volatile Organic Air Pollutants Using GC/MS with Deconvolution Reporting Software and a New Indoor Air Toxics Library Application