Development of an Automated Method for Simultaneous Determination of Low Molecular Weight Aliphatic Amines and Ammonia in Ambient Air by Diffusion Scrubber Coupled to Ion Chromatography

A method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of low molecular weight aliphatic amines and ammonia in the atmosphere. Analyte gases are collected quantitatively in high-purity deionized water of a planar diffusion scrubber, and the resultant solution is analyzed by ion chromatography. A 1-h cycle analysis could be continuously repeated. The calibrations for the amines are linear between 5 and 500 pptv. The detection limits are a few pptv with RSD of less than 3%. The calibration for ammonia shows severe curvature at high concentrations so that second-order fitting is required for accurate determination. This method was successfully applied to the environmental air analyses. The major amines in the atmosphere were trimethylamine, dimethylamine, and methylamine, and the temporal variations were closely correlated with that of ammonia, implying their identical emission sources.