Diphenyl ether – Determination of diphenyl ether in workplace air using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-DAD)
Air Monitoring Method – Translation of the German version from 2022
George Dragan1 (Method development)Ralph Hebisch1 (Head of the working group “Air Analyses” of the Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
Adela Frenzen2 (External verification)
Lutz Nitzschke2 (External verification)
Thomas Helmut Brock3 (Head of the working group “Analytics”)
Andrea Hartwig4 (Chair of the Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
MAK Commission5
1 Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Friedrich-Henkel-Weg 1–25, 44149 Dortmund, Germany
2 Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL), Pfarrstraße 3, 80538 München, Germany
3 German Social Accident Insurance, Institution for the raw materials and chemical industry, Prevention – Department of Hazardous Substances, Biological Agents and Analytical Chemistry, Kurfürsten-Anlage 62, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany
4 Institute of Applied Biosciences, Department of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Adenauerring 20a, Building 50.41, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
5 Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Kennedyallee 40, 53175 Bonn, Germany
Abstract
This analytical method is a validated measurement procedure for the determination of diphenyl ether [101-84-8] in workplace air in a concentration range of one tenth up to twice the currently valid Occupational Exposure Limit Value (OELV) in Germany of 7.1 mg/m3. For sampling, a defined volume of air is drawn through a binder-free quartz fibre filter followed by a silica gel sorbent tube. The flow rate is set to 0.5 l/min and sampling duration is 2 hours (which corresponds to a sampling volume of 60 l). Diphenyl ether is extracted with 2-propanol and subsequently analysed using liquid chromatography with diode array detection. The quantitative determination is based on a calibration function. The limit of quantification is 0.008 mg/m3 based on an air sample volume of 60 l. The mean recovery is 95.3% and the expanded uncertainty for the validation range of 0.71 to 14.2 mg/m3 is 24 to 25%.
