VOC screening in air

Sampling & analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in air.

VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds are a group of chemicals classified in accordance with their boiling point. Globally there are different definitions but typically the term VOC is used for organic compound with a boiling point of less than 250 °C or 482 °F.

Analytical method & sampling procedure

Depending on the compounds targeted in the analysis there are a number of sampling and analytical procedures available.

TO-15 is typically used for analysis of s standard list of up to 100 compounds. Sampling media is either a summa canister, Tedlar bag or a bottle vac.

TO-17 uses a sorbent tube for sampling and have the same target compounds as mentioned in TO-15. However, the number of compounds reported using this method is lower than the number reported using TO-15 due the limitation of the sorbent tubes.

NIOSH, OSHA and ISO: A number of compounds can be identified and quantified using different active or passive sampling tubes followed by analysis in accordance with NIOSH, OSHA or ISO methods.

The instrumentation used for VOC analysis is in the majority of cases GC-MS. Other detectors are used to identify specific compounds and in some cases liquid chromatography or LC is also used.