The current issue (2008.1) of Restek's e-newsletter, "The Restek Buzz," includes an article that summarizes the key advantages of thermal desorption versus solvent extraction in air monitoring applications. Thermal desorption is a gas extraction technique in which sorbent tubes that have been exposed to air samples are heated in a flow of carrier gas. Trapped vapors are desorbed into the carrier gas flow and are transferred into a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) system. According to the article, thermal desorption offers better sensitivity, desorption efficiency, and reproducibility compared with charcoal-carbon disulfide systems.
