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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #104899
Title: AUTOMATED SEQUENTIAL SAMPLER FOR COLLECTION OF HIGHLY VOLATILE ATMOSPHERIC CONTAMINANTS

Author
item Wang, Dong
item Yates, Scott
item ERNST, F. - UC RIVERSIDE

Submitted to: Environmental Quality
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: An automated solenoid switching system was developed to assist a precise determination of environmental concentrations of highly volatile organic compounds. The system is relatively simple to construct and can be easily modified to accommodate a variety of sources, sampling intervals, and multiple number of solenoid valves. With this sampling system, two experiments were conducted to determine atmospheric volatilization flux density of three highly volatile and reactive organic compounds. The results indicate that this automated solenoid switching system significantly reduced the requirements for labor and time, and produced reliable sample collection. This automated sampling system is also relatively inexpensive and cost effective since the investment of constructing the system is much less than the cost for labor and time of a manual sampling regime. Application of this automated switching system can improve measurement accuracy and assure sample changes occur exactly at predetermined time intervals.

Technical Abstract: Rapid and accurate measurement of atmospheric concentrations of highly volatile organic compounds is an important process in obtaining reliable information for the assessment of environmental pollution or the volatilization mechanisms of the chemicals. Non-mechanized sample collection requires intensive labor and effort, and may cause large random or systematic errors. An automated solenoid switching system was developed to assist a precise determination of environmental concentrations of highly volatile organic compounds. The design, construction, and operation were described in the paper for potential application in similar studies. Using this sampling system, two experiments were conducted to determine atmospheric volatilization flux density of three highly volatile and reactive organic compounds. The results indicate that this automated solenoid switching system significantly reduced the requirements for labor and time, and produced reliable sample collection. The system was also relatively inexpensive and can be easily modified to accommodate a variety of sources, sampling intervals, and multiple number of solenoid valves.