Performance evaluation of a surface acoustic wave analyzer to measure VOCs in air and water

The performance of a fast gas chromatograph equipped with a Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) detector is evaluated in this paper. The instrument was developed for the rapid analysis of volatile organic compounds in air or water. The SAW detector, the first and only known integrating detector for gas chromatographs (GCs), operates by responding to the mass of material exiting the GC column. Material adhering to the SAW surface changes its operating frequency, which is detected by the system electronics and converted into a chromatogram. The system requires no high voltages or radioactive ionization sources, and is compact and portable. The millisecond response of the detector allows high speed analysis-measured in seconds-to take place. The performance of the GC/SAW system is comparable to laboratory GCs in terms of limit of detection, precision, accuracy, and interference while screening environments in essentially real time (10 seconds). The results of the instrument evaluation for 10 common organic compounds in air and water matrices are presented.