COLLECTION OF AMMONIA IN INDOOR AIR BY MEANS OF A WEAK CATION-EXCHANGE CARTRIDGE

An active sampling method based on a solid-phase collection medium was used to determine ammonia concentrations in indoor air. A weak cation exchange cartridge was used to collect ammonia, which was then eluted from the cartridge with 0.02 M HCl and determined by cation exchange chromatography (CEC) with conductivity detection. The method was applied to quantify the ammonia in environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and is compared to an impinger collection technique. The method was reproducible with a relative standard deviation of 2.0%. Percent recovery is about 98%. Analyses of samples collected in a variety of situations showed that ammonia concentrations vary. With a relatively short sampling time of 0.5 to 1 h, this procedure was capable of detecting ammonia above 5-mu-g m-3 under the sampling conditions.