Abstract

In this study, a number of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including benzene, toluene, p-xylene,styrene, and methyl ethyl ketone were analyzed from samples collected in ambient air and under the field conditions. These samples were analyzed independently by two different set-ups for VOC analyses, i.e., between [1] gas chromatography/flame ionization detector with tube sampling - (F-T system) and [2] gas chromatography/mass spectrometer with bag sampling (M-B system). The analytical results derived by both systems showed fairly similar patterns in relative sense but with moderately large differences in absolute sense. The results of M-B system were high relative to F-T system with the F-T/M-B ratio below 1. If the relative biases of the two measurement techniques are derived in terms of percent difference (PD) in concentration values, the results were generally above 35% on average. A student t-test was applied to investigate the statistical significance of those differences between the systems. The results of both analytical systems were different at 95% confidence level for toluene, p-xylene, styrene, and methyl ethyl ketone (P < 0.043). However, F-T and M-B systems showed strong correlations for toluene and p-xylene. The observed bias is explained in large part by such factors as the differences in standard phases used for each system and the chemical loss inside the bag sampler.