Indoor and Outdoor Air Profiling with GC-IMS

Air Quality research is a trending topic that has received increasing attention from scientific community around the globe. Due to the high relevance of recent discoveries in areas like medicine or chemistry, analytical techniques with high sensitivity and selectivity play a crucial role in the characterization of the ambient air composition. This preliminary study intends to evaluate the air quality around a university campus by profiling VOCs from 14 locations with differentiated characteristics, intended for further industrial contextualization. Multiple air samples were collected from each defined location and further analysed with the GC-IMS technique. Totally, 33 compounds were detected, and their intensity peak values, and drift and retention times were used to identify 11 of them. The suitability of GC-IMS to quickly and easily assess air quality become evident. Further detailed studies should include a wider range of locations to identify new VOCs and their eventual consequences to human health.