Low acetaldehyde collection efficiencies for 24-hour sampling with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH)-coated solid sorbents.

ABSTRACT

Airborne aldehyde and ketone (carbonyl) sampling methodologies based on derivatization with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH)-coated solid sorbents could unequivocally be considered the "gold" standard. Originally developed in the late 1970s, these methods have been extensively evaluated and developed up to the present day. However, these methods have been inadequately evaluated for the long-term (i.e., 24 h or greater) sampling collection efficiency (CE) of carbonyls other than formaldehyde. The current body of literature fails to demonstrate that DNPH-coated solid sorbent sampling methods have acceptable CEs for the long-term sampling of carbonyls other than formaldehyde. Despite this, such methods are widely used to report the concentrations of multiple carbonyls from long-term sampling, assuming approximately 100% CEs. Laboratory experiments were conducted in this study to evaluate the long-term formaldehyde and acetaldehyde sampling CEs for several commonly used DNPH-coated solid sorbents. Results from sampling known concentrations of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde generated in a dynamic atmosphere generation system demonstrate that the 24-hour formaldehyde sampling CEs ranged from 83 to 133%, confirming the findings made in previous studies. However, the 24-hour acetaldehyde sampling CEs ranged from 1 to 62%. Attempts to increase the acetaldehyde CEs by adding acid to the samples post sampling were unsuccessful. These results indicate that assuming approximately 100% CEs for 24-hour acetaldehyde sampling, as commonly done with DNPH-coated solid sorbent methods, would substantially under estimate acetaldehyde concentrations.