Pumped sorbent tube sampling is a well established method for the sampling of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) in ambient, indoor and workplace atmospheres¹. Safe sampling volumes and breakthrough volumes have been published for commonly found VOCs on widely used sorbents such as Tenax, however for newer sorbents and less commonly found VOCs there is less robust data.

The Safe Sampling Volumes (SSVs) were determined from 15 tests of Retention Volume on 12 VOCs across the 3 sorbents. VOCs tested were: Aldehydes (C₅, C₆, C₈, C₉), Ketones (C₄, C₆), Alcohols (C₃, C₄), Furan, Limonene, Isoprene and Ethyl Acetate.

12 VOC / sorbent combinations gave SSVs large enough for practical sampling of indoor atmospheres, while SSVs for Furan on Carbopack-X, Isovaleraldehyde on Tenax TA and Methyl Ethyl Ketone on Tenax TA gave SSVs that were too small to be of practical use. This work identifies suitable sorbents and sampling volumes for the complete range of species tested.

抽运的吸附剂管采样是一种成熟的方法，用于在环境，室内和工作场所大气^1中采样挥发性有机化合物（VOC）和半挥发性有机化合物（SVOC）。对于广泛使用的吸附剂（例如Tenax）上常见的VOC，已经发布了安全的采样量和突破量，但是对于较新的吸附剂和较少见的VOC，可靠的数据较少。

安全采样量（SSV）是通过对三种吸附剂对12种VOC进行的15种保留量测试确定的。测试的VOC是：醛（C ₅，C ₆，C ₈，C ₉），酮（C ₄，C ₆），醇（C ₃，C ₄），呋喃，柠檬烯，异戊二烯和乙酸乙酯。

12种VOC /吸附剂组合可提供足够大的SSV，足以对室内大气进行实际采样，而Carbopack-X上呋喃的SSV，Tenax TA上的异戊醛和Tenax TA上的甲基乙基酮会使SSV太小而无法实际使用。这项工作确定了适用于所测试物种的全部范围的合适的吸附剂和采样量。