Study on Determination of Gaseous Components in Ambient Air by Simple Passive Sampling Methods

A proposed passive sampling method was investigated for the determination of gaseous components such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), nitric acid (HNO3), hydrochloric acid (HCl) and ammonia (NH3) in the air. The polluted atmospheric gases were sampled by the use of simple samplers composed of impregnated filters wrapped with a polytetrafluoroethylene filter. Then the trapped components were extracted with ultrapure water and were determined by ion chromatography (IC) for Cl-, NO-2, NO-3 and SO2-4, and by Indophenol method for NH4+. In the case of TEA sampler, the average concentration of NO2 and SO2 were determined with 0.63-1.8% and 4.4-10.5% relative standard deviations (RSDs) respectively, at atmospheric levels for 1-5 weeks exposure. With K2CO3 sampler, NO2 and SO2 were determined with 1.4-3.8% and 1.2-5.6% RSDs, respectively, and with TEA+ K2CO3 sampler, NO2 and SO2 were determined with 1.0-3.8% and 0.5-5.1% RSDs, respectively, at a similar field test. NaNO2 sampler was applicable to O3, SO2 and HCl determination with 3.1-4.3%, 1.0-4.0% and 0-6.5% RSDs, respectively. Polyamide sampler was also applicable to HNO3 and SO2 determination with 3.5-6.0% and 3.9-6.7% RSDs, respectively. H3PO4 sampler was somewhat poorer precision with 6.9-26.7% RSDs.