Application of carbon monolith based on exfoliated graphite for sorption and subsequent chromatographic determination of volatile organic compounds in soil air

The possibility of using a new graphene-based carbon monolith for searching new oil deposits or branches adjacent to the already registered oilfields by areal geochemical survey is demonstrated. The material has been developed at the Faculty of Chemistry of M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Sorption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from soil air at the oilfield was carried out using two sorbents (carbon adsorbent and Tenax-TA traditionally used for such analyses) with subsequent determination by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection and thermal desorption as a way of sample injection (TD/GC/MS). The new material absorbs more hydrocarbons (n-alkanes and monoaromatics) in the range from C₈ to C₁₆ than Tenax-TA, the intensities of the chromatographic peaks of the compounds also being higher. The phenomenon of irreversible sorption from carbon materials is observed for VOCs from C₁₇ and more. However, the concentration of such substances in the soil air is rather low due to the low pressure of saturated vapors of these compounds under normal conditions. Hence, the chromatogram of carbon monolith reflects the macro-characteristics of this oil deposit better than Tenax-TA. To increase the sensitivity of the determination, a preliminary optimization of thermal desorption conditions was carried out. The values of the helium flow rate through the sorbent sample and the desorption time of the compounds are chosen to get the largest peak area. The regeneration of sorbent samples is carried out to provide the possibility of their reusage. Tenax-TA decomposes at lower temperatures compared to carbon sorbent and thus cannot be purified completely unlike the new monolith. The graphene-based sorbent is reusable and much cheaper in the manufacture than imported polymer Tenax-TA since it is made of domestic materials.

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