Thermal desorption GC/FID analysis of aliphatic aldehydes in indoor air

Aliphatic aldehydes are common indoor pollutants. Although their concentrations are often low compared to other typical indoor VOCs, their unpleasant odor and low odor thresholds make them important substances to monitor for the assessment of indoor air quality. The analytic of aldehydes in air by HPLC/UV is still time consuming and somewhat sophisticated. In this paper a rather simple method for the determination of aldehydes is presented. Sampling of few liters of air on Tenax TA and analysis by thermal desorption GC/FID is sufficient for a sensitive and fast quantification of aldehydes in indoor air. High time resolution for chamber experiments can be achieved. Due to the low retention volumes of the more volatile compounds on Tenax, butyl aldehyde is the lowest boiling aldehyde that can be quantified by use of this technique.