Viability of using SUMMA polished canisters for the collection and storage of parts per billion by volume level volatile organics

The collection of whole air samples using SUMMA polished canisters has been a commonly used technique for over a decade. This technique has been examined for sample storage, analyte stability, and recovery for up to 45 compounds routinely detected in ambient air. However, this technique is often used for a more extended set of target analytes for which little or no published validation data exist. This paper reports the accuracy, precision, and storage stability results for 194 volatile organic compounds generated in humidified ambient air and collected in SUMMA polished canisters. In addition, instrument and method detection limits for the gas chromatography/multidetector (GC/MD) analytical system were determined from the resulting data. A small percentage of the study compounds displayed high variability, low recovery, or poor storage stability for which qualitative only data can be generated with this technique. However, 168 of 194 (86%) compounds studied appear to be amenable to the canister technique. This study shows that canisters are a viable collection and storage media for a variety of compound classes including alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, aromatics, and sulfur-containing compounds.