Benzene detection has been a frequent topic here at Teledyne Tekmar. In October 2013, we published an Application Note: “Achieving Low-Level Detection of Benzene in Beverages with an Automated Headspace Vial Sampler” and an accompanying webinar “Benzene in Beverages - How Low Can We Go” (to view the webinar, please click the button at the bottom of this blog).
Tags: Purge and Trap Concentrator, drinking water, Stratum, HT3, Benzene, Beverage Analysis, US EPA Method 524.3, P&T
In gas phase analysis, water can be a big challenge. Like the analytes of interest, it is volatile. Generally in gas chromatography, water can be the enemy of just about every component of the GC, from the injector to the column to the detector. And when using a purge and trap concentrator for the sample preparation, the matrix is water, so dealing with it is unavoidable. Our task, then, is to try to decrease the amount of water and minimize the effects of water on the GC and the resulting chromatography.
Tags: Purge and Trap Concentrator, chromatography, US EPA Method 524.3, SIM, US EPA Method 524.2, gas phase analysis
The Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Program (UCMR3) recently announced a new rule that requires public drinking water facilities to collect data on roughly 30 contaminants from January 2013 through December 2015. For the VOC portion of this rule, seven (down from the original nine) were selected for analysis by US EPA Method 524.3, using selective ion monitoring (SIM) to reach MRLs as low as 0.03 µg/L.
Tags: VOC, drinking water, US EPA Method 524.3, Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Program, UCMR3, selective ion monitoring, SIM