Rapid determination of ethylene oxide with fiber-packed sample preparation needle

Fiber-packed sample preparation device was applied to the simultaneous derivatization/preconcentration of ethylene oxide (EO) in air samples. The polymer-coated filaments were packed longitudinally into the needle, and hydrogen bromide (HBr) was loaded onto the filaments in the preconditioning process. Simultaneous derivatization with HBr in the needle was made during the sampling process of the gaseous EO, and the corresponding derivatized analyte, 2-bromoethanol, was desorbed by passing a small amount of methanol through the extraction needle in the heated gas chromatograph (GC) injector. The basic extraction/desorption parameters for EO have been evaluated. The limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ) and the relative standard deviation (RSD) of run-to-run repeatability were 1.8 ng/L, 5.4 ng/L and less than 4%, respectively, with an extraction time of about 10 min. Satisfactory storage performance for three days at room temperature was also confirmed.