Extent of sample loss on the sampling device and the resulting experimental biases when collecting volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in air using sorbent tubes

Not all volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are suitable for sampling from air onto sorbent tubes (ST) with subsequent analysis by thermal desorption (TD) with gas chromatography (GC). Some compounds (such as C2 hydrocarbons) are too volatile for quantitative retention by sorbents at ambient temperature, while others are too reactive-either for storage stability on the tubes (post-sampling) or for thermal desorption/GC analysis. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are one of the compound groups that present a challenge to sorbent tube sampling. In this study, we evaluated sample losses on the inner wall surface of the sorbent tube sampler. The sorptive losses of five VFA (acetic, propionic, n-butyric, i-valeric, and n-valeric acid) were tested using two types of tubes (stainless steel and quartz), each packed with three sorbent beds arranged in order of sorbent strength from the sampling end of the tube (Tenax TA, Carbopack B, and Carbopack X). It showed significantly higher losses of VFAs in both liquid phase and vapor phase when using stainless steel tube samplers. These losses were also seen if vapor-phase fatty acids were passed through empty stainless steel tubing and increased dramatically with increasing molecular weight, e.g., losses of 33.6% (acetic acid) to 97.5% (n-valeric acid). Similar losses of VFAs were also observed from headspace sampling of cheese products. Considering that stainless steel sampling tubes are still used extensively by many researchers, their replacement with quartz tubes is recommended to reduce systematic biases in collecting VFA samples or in their calibration.