“Determination of Pyrolyzable Oxygen in Ambient Particulate Matter” Analytical Chemistry 56 (1984): 2871-2875.
Benner, W. H.
The compounds presented in Table I have a variety of oxygen functional groups, some of which have been observed in ambient air and smog-chamber samples (11, 12). The recovery of oxygen for each of these compounds is shown in Table I, and the overall results (percent recovery, average deviation, etc.) are summarized in Table II. The recovery for all standards was 101.4 ± 4.1% (n = 65). For standards analyzed with the coloumeter, recovery was 101.2 ± 3.9% (n = 43), and recovery was 101.8 ± 4.5% (n = 22) for standards analyzed with NDIR detection. The analytical limits of detection (LOD) and LOQ were calculated according to American Chemical Society recommendations (13), as shown in Table II. Either of the detectors is suitable for analyzing oxygen in ambient particulate matter, but the NDIR system is probably more appropriate because of the low concentrations of oxygen expected on an air-filter sample.
A few comments should be made about preparation of low-concentration oxygen standards and their analysis. Benzoic acid was suggested as a reliable standard for this type of analysis (14) because it is available commercially in a primary standard grade. Our experience has been that only fresh primary standard benzoic acid gave results 100% of the expected value.
