A Solid-Phase Microcolumn Extraction Method for the Analysis of Acetic Acid and Furfural Emitted from Paper

A rapid non-destructive sampling technique for the analysis of volatile organic compounds emitted from paper sheets is presented. A capillary, which is connected to an adsorbent-packed microcolumn, is inserted between two sheets at the centre of a paper stack placed in a bag made of polyethylene terephthalate/aluminium/polyethylene. The other end of the microcolumn is connected to a gas-tight syringe and an appropriate volume (5 mL) of the gaseous phase is aspirated. The loaded microcolumn is transferred into a modified split/splitless inlet of the GC-FID for desorption and analysis. The method has been successfully applied to the analysis of acetic acid and furfural in artificially aged paper sheets and naturally aged old books. The method shows good repeatability with limits of quantification for acetic acid and furfural of 0.1 and 0.04 ng mL^?1 respectively in the gas phase.