Phthalates are widely used in a variety of industries, mainly as plasticizers. Many consumer products contain phthalates, such as building materials, cosmetics and medical devices. It exhibits low acute toxicity but its estrogenic activity has been documented. Previous studies also indicate that the inhalation is an important exposure route, especially from indoor air.
For the assessments of gas-phase phthalates exposures, traditional methods usually require complicated pretreatment processes, which further lead to the possible loss of the analytes and large consumption of toxic solvent. On the other hand, solid phase microextraciton (SPME) presents many advantages over conventional analytical methods by combining sampling, preconcentration, and direct transfer of the analytes into a standard gas chromatography system. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to develop a passive sampler for gaseous phthalates based on the technique of SPME.
Known concentrations of the phthalates vapors were generated in gas bags for the validations of the SPME diffusive sampler. After exposures, the SPME fibers were directly inserted into the injection port of the gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) for thermal desorption and further analysis. The experimental sampling constants of the designed passive sampler for phthalates as well as the effect of different environmental factors on the samplers were validated.
The 100 μm PDMS fiber was used in this study. The experimental sampling constants of phthalates were found to be ranged from 0.0165 to 0.307 cm3 min-1. Different temperatures during sampling lead to the differences of the sampling rates, while the effect of relative humidity can be neglected. The results showed the potential of using passive air sampling by solid-phase microextraction to evaluate the time-weighted average concentrations of phthalates.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. USE AND PRODUCTION 2
1.2. ENVIRONMENTAL DISTRIBUTION 3
1.3. HUMAN EXPOSURE 4
1.4. TOXICITY 6
1.5. REGULATIONS 7
1.6. SAMPLING METHOD 8
1.6.1. CONVENTIONAL METHODS 8
1.6.2. SOLID-PHASE MICROEXTRACTION 12
1.6.2.1. THEORY 12
1.6.2.2. CHARACTERISTICS OF SPME 14
CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND STRUCTURE 12
2.1. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 12
2.2. RESEARCH STRUCTURE 13
CHAPTER 3 MATERIALS AND METHODS 14
3.1. REAGENTS AND STANDARDS 14
3.2. INSTRUMENTATION 14
3.3. CALIBRATION LINE 15
3.4. SPME FIBER 16
3.5. PASSIVE SAMPLING 17
3.6. STORAGE STABILITY 18
3.7. VALIDATIONS 2
CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 21
4.1. SELECTIONS OF FIBERS 21
4.2. SAMPLING RATE 22
4.3. STORAGE STABILITY 27
4.4. VALIDATIONS 28
4.5. LIMITATIONS 30
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 31
REFERENCES 33

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