Gaseous Products of Incense Coil Combustion Extracted by Passive Solid Phase Microextraction Samplers

Burning incense indoors is a common behavior in Southeast Asia. In this investigation, needle trap samplers (NTS), a novel, green analytical technology is used for sampling gaseous combustion by-products from sandalwood incense coils. To extract indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs), two NTS are prepared, one using 60-80 mesh and the other using 100-120 mesh divinylbenzene (DVB) particles packed in 22-gauge stainless steel needles. This work compares extraction efficiency of an NTS and that of a commercially available 100 m polydimethylsiloxane solid phase microextration (PDMS-SPME) fiber sampler. Experimental results indicated that the 100-120 mesh DVB-NTS performed best among all samplers during a 1 h sampling period. The main extracted compounds were toluene, ethylbenzene, propane, chloromethane, 1,3-butadiene, methanol and dichloromethane. The potential use of small badge-sized or pen-sized NTS for the indoor atmosphere and occupational hygiene applications is addressed.