Behaviour of several solid adsorbents for sampling tetraalkyllead compounds in air

The behaviour of various solid adsorbents for collecting tetraalkyllead compounds has been studied. A synthetic atmosphere containing a known concentration of tetraethyllead was produced and the tetraethyllead compound was trapped in a glass tube containing the solid adsorbent. The trapped compound was extracted with hexane in an ultrasonic bath, and the resulting solution was analysed by GC-MS. Porapak and Tenax, with retention efficiencies of 92 and 96%, respectively, were shown to be the more efficient at trapping this alkyllead compound than Chromosorb, active charcoal, Amberlites and polyurethane foam. The behaviour of both Porapak and Tenax for trapping other tetraalkyllead compounds in the presence of gasoline vapour was also studied.