Volatile Organic Compounds Sampling Techniques in Atmospheric Monitoring
Summary
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) encompass a wide range of hydrocarbons and oxygenated species that readily vapourise under ambient conditions, contributing both to human health risks and to atmospheric chemistry such as ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation. Accurate quantification of VOCs in ambient and indoor environments relies on two principal approaches: active sampling, which draws a known volume of air through sorbent media using pumps, and passive sampling, which exploits molecular diffusion without external power. Sorbent tubes packed with materials such as Tenax TA, Carbograph and Carboxen enable preconcentration of trace compounds prior to thermal desorption and analysis by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Key performance metrics include breakthrough volume, sampling rate and time-weighted average (TWA) concentration. Recent advances have extended sampling durations from hours to weeks, improved sorbent formulations for very volatile species and introduced novel deployment platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles and robotic samplers. Integrative long-term monitoring, combined with automated thermal desorption and rapid-scan detectors, now supports high-resolution spatial mapping of emissions from industrial complexes, urban corridors and remote sites, informing regulatory compliance and air quality management worldwide.
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Volatile Organic Compounds Sampling Techniques in Atmospheric Monitoring publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in volatile organic compounds sampling techniques in atmospheric monitoring across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): Organic chemicals that evaporate readily at ambient temperature, impacting air quality and health.
Active Sampling: A technique that uses pumps to draw a known volume of air through a sorbent medium for subsequent analysis.
Passive Sampling: A diffusion-based method that collects airborne compounds without powered flow, providing time-integrated concentrations.
Thermal Desorption: A process by which sorbed analytes are released from a sorbent tube by controlled heating for instrumental detection.
Breakthrough Volume: The volume of air sampled at which a target compound begins to elute from the downstream end of a sorbent, indicating capacity limits.
Time-Weighted Average (TWA): The average concentration of an analyte over a specified sampling period, reflecting exposure or ambient levels.
References
- Development of a Long-Term Sampling Method for Determination of NMHCs in Indoor Air. Molecules (2023).
- Evaluation of air quality in indoor and outdoor environments: Impact of anti-COVID-19 measures. The Science of The Total Environment (2022).
- Evaluation and Application of a Passive Air Sampler for Atmospheric Volatile Organic Compounds. Aerosol and Air Quality Research (2018).
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