TITLE
Cleanliness of Common Air Sampling Sorbents for Application to
Phenolic Compounds Measurement Using Supercritical Fluid Extraction

AUTHOR(S)
J. R. Bowyer and J. D. Pleil

PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS
ManTech Environmental Technology, Inc.
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

SPONSORING AGENCY NAME AND ADDRESS
AMRB/MRDD/AREAL
U.S. EPA
Research Triangle Park, NC  27711

ABSTRACT
     The trace-level measurement of phenolic compounds in the
ambient air is complicated by the acidic and polar nature of the
compounds especially during recovery from the sampling medium. 
Recently, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) has been proposed as
an alternative extraction method to Soxhlet extraction or thermal
desorption to achieve more efficient recoveries.  For such
methodology to become practical, the candidate sorbents must first
be tested for stability and cleanliness under SFE conditions.  This
paper describes exploratory research results of background
contamination tests and cleanup properties of some common air
sampling sorbent media with respect to future application to
phenolic compounds monitoring.