The effect of air bubbles and headspace on the aqueous concentrations of volatile organic compounds in sampling vials

The presence of headspace and air bubbles in volatile organic analysis sampling vials lowers the actual aqueous concentration of these compounds due to the partitioning of solutes into the gaseous phase. This could make the sample invalid for analysis. In this work, the effects of air bubbles and headspace on the aqueous concentration of 60 volatile organic compounds listed in U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Method 8260 were evaluated experimentally and theoretically. The results showed that for air to water ratios of 1 to 20 and less, there was no significant effect on the aqueous concentrations of target organic solutes in the sampling vials. When the air to water ratio was increased to 1 to 10, the recovery rates of four organic compounds were lower than the control. Laboratory experiments on sampling vials showed that the presence of air bubbles or headspace with the volumetric air to water ratios of 1 to 20 and less do not produce any significant effect on the original concentrations for most targeted volatile organic compounds. The experimental results also indicated that in 40 mt sampling vials with headspace range of 2 to 8 mt, the recovery rates of most volatile organic compounds with high values of Henry's law constant (> 0.01 Atm m(3)/mol. at 25 degreesC) were larger than the calculated rates.