Novel gas chromatography for rapid, in situ workplace hazardous VOC/VIC analysis

工人每天暴露在各种危险的挥发性有机/无机化合物(VOCs/VIC)中 这可能会影响他们的安全和长期健康。气相色谱(GC)长期以来一直被认为是 是分析各种挥发性有机化合物/挥发性有机化合物最有前景和最常用的方法。然而，工作台GC 仪器体积庞大，通常放在集中式实验室中，因此不能现场部署。 同时，市场上现有的便携式GC和微型GC(µGC)峰值容量有限，只能处理一次 少量、定义明确的化学物质，在遇到复杂的VOC/VIC时经常失败，可以在 一个工作场所。因此，迫切需要一种能够快速且灵敏地分析 大量VOC/VIC，同时保持便携性和成本效益。建议的目标是 该项目旨在开发一种低成本、高性能的便携式自动化微GC设备，该设备基于一种新型的3- 三维(3-D)微GC设计和高灵敏度高速蒸汽传感器。它可以执行快速(&lt；20分钟)， 对数百个工作场所的VOCs/VIC进行敏感性(Ppt)和现场分析，用于工人暴露评估。在……里面 拟议的项目将在一块芯片上开发和构建一个完全自动化的3-D微GC设备，该芯片 将包括预浓缩器、热进样器、微分离柱、流量控制和蒸汽检测器。 代表各种工作场所暴露的100多个VOCs/VIC将用作模型系统，以 表征和评估设备的性能。相应的VOC/VIC参考库将为 为这些化合物创造的。最后，该设备将与预置的VOC/VIC库一起使用 在实验工作场所环境中以及在真实的室内环境中定量分析VOCs/VIC 工作场所和户外工业或后工业环境。将对性能进行基准测试 反对传统的工业卫生方法。在这个3.5年的项目中，我们将完成以下五个方面的工作 具体目标： 目标1：设计、微制造、表征和优化3-D微GC器件的元件。 目的2：组装3-D微色谱装置，开发运算/分析算法。 目标3：集成自动VIC检测模块。 目标4：对3-D微色谱器件进行表征和优化，并创建VOC/VIC参考库。 目标5：针对传统的工业卫生方法，现场测试3-DµGC设备和基准。 拟议的项目涉及NIOSH跨部门项目之一--“暴露评估”--由 开发一种新的分析设备，以更好地评估工人接触危险VOCs/VIC的情况。这个 中期成果将包括期刊文章、文献中的引用、发明和专利，以及 采用项目中开发的技术。最终结果将是工作场所的减少 危险暴露和相关疾病。

Workers are exposed every day to various hazardous volatile organic/inorganic compounds (VOCs/VICs) that can affect their safety and long-term health. Gas chromatography (GC) has long been considered to be the most promising and most commonly used method to analyze various VOCs/VICs. However, bench-top GC instruments are bulky and are usually placed in centralized labs, and thus cannot be field-deployable. Meanwhile, existing portable GC and micro-GC (µGC) on the market have limited peak capacity, handle only a small, well-defined set of chemicals, and often fail when encountering complex VOCs/VICs that can be seen in a workplace. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a device capable of rapidly and sensitively analyzing a large number of VOCs/VICs while maintaining portability and being cost-effective. The goal of the proposed project is to develop a low-cost high-performance portable automated µGC device based on a novel 3- dimensional (3-D) µGC design and highly sensitive high-speed vapor sensors. It can perform rapid (<20 min), sensitive (ppt), and in-situ analysis of hundreds of workplace VOCs/VICs for worker exposure assessment. In the proposed project, a complete fully automated 3-D µGC device will be developed and built on a chip, which will include pre-concentrators, thermal injector, micro-separation columns, flow controls, and vapor detectors. Over 100 VOCs/VICs representing various workplace exposures will be used as model systems to characterize and evaluate the performance of the device. A corresponding VOC/VIC reference library will be created for those compounds. Finally, the device, in conjunction with the pre-built VOC/VIC library, will be used to quantitatively analyze VOCs/VICs in an experimental workplace environment, as well as in real-world indoor workplace and outdoor industrial or post-industrial environments. The performance will be benchmarked against conventional industrial hygiene methods. In this 3.5-year project, we will accomplish the following five specific aims: Aim 1: Design, micro-fabricate, characterize, and optimize the components for 3-D µGC devices. Aim 2: Assemble the 3-D µGC device and develop the operation/analysis algorithm. Aim 3: Integrate an automated VIC detection module. Aim 4: Characterize and optimize the 3-D µGC device, and create a VOC/VIC reference library. Aim 5: Field-test the 3-D µGC device and benchmark against conventional industrial hygiene methods. The proposed project addresses one of the NIOSH cross-sectors - “EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT” – by developing a new analytical device to better evaluate worker exposures to hazardous VOCs/VICs. The intermediate outcomes will include journal articles, citations in the literature, inventions and patents, and adoption of technologies developed in the project. The end outcomes will be a reduction in workplace hazardous exposures and related illnesses.