Sampling of airborne aromatic amines.

Sampling trains consisting of glass fiber and silver membrane filters and support pad assemblies followed by different commercially available sorbent tubes were evaluated for the simultaneous determination of airborne quinoline, indole, 2-aminobiphenyl, and carbazole by means of a specially constructed vapor generation apparatus. Tenax was the sorbent of choice since relatively poor and inconsistent recoveries were obtained with silica gel and XAD-2 had a poor load capacity for the amines. For 500-L air samples collected at 17-22 /sup 0/C and 45-60 % relative humidity over 4 h, the load capacity of the 100 mg Tenax front section was ca. 70 ..mu..g (140 ..mu..g/m/sup 3/) and the capacity of the whole sampling train exceeded 160 ..mu..g (320 ..mu..g/m/sup 3/) if equal amounts of the four amines were present. Overall recoveries of >90% and sampling precision of <10% relative standard deviation were generally obtained with the chosen technique and at concentrations of 5, 10, and 80 ..mu..g/m/sup 3/ of each amine. Increasing breakthrough of the amines through filters/pad sets and Tenax was observed with increasing temperature. There was no evidence that brief contact with other airborne material affected the amounts of amines recovered.