ABSTRACT

Canisters offer a simple and highly effective means of measuring volatile chemicals in air ranging from PPM to sub-PPB levels. The “GC grade” internal surfaces of canisters allow for a much wider range of recovery relative to most adsorbent-based samplers, without the inaccuracies inherent with adsorbent- based methods such as volume measurement errors during sampling, inconsistent recoveries, breakthrough, and reverse adsorption, to name a few. Over the years, smaller canisters have become more popular due to their ease of use relative to the heavier 6L canisters, as well as to the reduced need for very large sample sizes as laboratory analyzers become more sensitive. Along with the reduction in size has come the development of different surface treatments and types of canisters, including fused silica lined stainless steel (eg.Silonite MiniCans) and deactivated glass (Bottle-Vac) canisters. These canisters actually extend the range of compounds that can be successfully collected, stored, and analyzed by GC and GCMS relative to the older SUMMA technology, as their internal surfaces are much more like that of a GC column. Looking at this another way, if a volatile or light semivolatile compound is GC compatible, it will likely be compatible with these newer sampling canisters. A complete overview of the different types of canisters in use today can be found in the Entech Document 501, “Understanding Sampling Canister
Technology”.


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Sampling with MiniCans and Bottle-Vacs App NoteDownload
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Create DateSeptember 29, 2015
Last UpdatedNovember 15, 2018