LAUSR

Abstract This study describes the development of a thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method for determining the main degradation products of 1,3-butadiene, especially 1,3-butadiene monoxide and 1,3-butadiene diepoxide, in air samples. The method involves the sampling of 6 L of air in a Carbopack X sorbent tube followed by thermal desorption coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Method validation showed good linearity for all the target compounds, low detection limits (ranging between 0.004 ng m−3 and 0.001 ng m−3) and acceptable intra-day (2–10%, n = 5, 2.5 ng) and inter-day (6–17%, n = 5, 2.5 ng) repeatability values. The developed method has been applied for the determination of 1,3-butadiene degradation products at four different sites in a 1,3-butadiene production plant and at three locations in the vicinity of the same production plant. The target compounds were found in both kinds of samples analysed standing out from the rest ones the concentrations found in the 1,3-butadiene production plant (site 1) with a maximum concentration for 1,3-butadiene of 86.7 μg m−3, 0.34 μg m−3 for 1,3-butadiene monoxide and 1.04 μg m−3 for 1,3-butadiene diepoxide. Moreover, the results obtained demonstrate that thermal desorption is a suitable method for the determination of 1,3-butadiene degradation products in air samples.