Characterisation and calibration of active sampling Solid Phase Microextraction applied to sensitive determination of gaseous carbonyls.

A characterisation of a system designed for active sampling of gaseous compounds with Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) fibres is described. This form of sampling is useful to automate sampling while considerably reducing the sampling times. However, the efficiency of this form of sampling is also prone to be affected by certain undesirable effects such as fibre saturation, competition or displacement effects between analytes, to which particular attention should be paid especially at high flow rates.