Of volatile organic sulfur compounds

Ojala, M., R. Ketola, T. Mansikka, et al. 1997. Detection of volatile organic sulfur compounds in water by headspace gas chromatography and membrane inlet mass spectrometry. HRC—J. High Res. Chromatogr. 20 165-169. 

Lomans BP, van der Drift C, Pol A, Op den Camp HJM (2002) Microbial cycling of volatile organic sulfur compounds. Cell Mol Life Sci 59 575-588... 

Lomans B., Pol A., and Op Den Camp H. J. M. (2002a) Microbial cycling of volatile organic sulfur compounds in anoxic environments. Water Sci. Technol. 45, 55—60. 

Murray, R.A. (2001) Limitations to the use of solid-phase microextraction for quantitation of mixtures of volatile organic sulfur compounds, Anal. Chem., 73(7), 1446-1649. 

Blank, L, Sensory relevance of volatile organic sulfur compounds in food. In Heteroatomic Aroma Compounds, ACS Symposium Series 826 (Reineccius, G.A., Reineccius, T.A., eds.), American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, pp. 25-53, 2002... 

Haberhauer-Troyer, C., Rosenberg, E., and Grasserbauer, M., Evaluation of solid-phase microextraction of sampling of volatile organic sulfur compounds in air for subsequent gas chromatographic analysis with atomic emission detection, J. Chromatogr. A, 848, 305-315, 1999. 

Wardencki, W. and Namiesnik, J., Studies on the application of solid-phase microextraction for analysis of volatile organic sulfur compounds in gaseous and liquid samples, Chem. Anal. (Warsaw), 44, 485-493, 1999. 

Ketola, R. A., Mansikka, T., Ojala, M., Kotiaho, T., and Kostiainen, R., Analysis of volatile organic sulfur compounds in air by membrane inlet mass spectrometry. Anal. Chem., 69, 4536-4539, 1997. 

F. Pelusio, T. Nilsson, L. Montanarella, R. TiUo, B. Larsen, S. Facchetti, and J. Madsen, Headspace solid-phase microextraction analysis of volatile organic sulfur compounds in black and white truffle aroma, J. Agiic. Food Chem. 43 2138 (1995). 

Table 1 lists volatiles identified in white and black truffle aromas by head-space SPME (lOO-pm PDMS) GC/MS, and Table 2 lists results by purge-and-trap (Tenax) GC/MS. Results obtained by HS-SPME-GC/MS agreed well with those obtained by headspace Tenax adsorption GC/MS for the volatile organic sulfur compounds, and the expected discrimination of the polar or very volatile compounds by HS-SPME was confirmed. Pelusio et al. concluded that HS-SPME-GC/MS is a powerful technique for analysis of volatile organic sulfur compounds in truffle aromas, but because HS-SPME (with PDMS fibers) strongly discriminates more polar and very volatile compounds, it is less suited for quantitative analysis. 

Chasteen, T. G. Bentley, R. Volatile Organic Sulfur Compounds of Environmental Interest Dimethyl Sulfide and Methanethiol. An Introductory Overview, J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 1524-1528. 

It is now recognized that dimethylsulfide is the volatile organic sulfur compound responsible for 75% of the global sulfur cycle. 

The majority of these materials are organic sulfur compounds that may also contain an odor intensifier. These chemicals are generally volatile liquids at room temperature with odors that are detectable at very low levels. Under normal battlefield conditions, these materials do not pose a serious danger to the life of an exposed individual and do not produce any permanent injury. Since approximately 0.2% of the population is unable to detect odors (anosmic), compositions may contain multiple malodorant components. 

Various other workers have reported on the determination of volatile organic compounds in soils [186,187] and landfill soils [188]. Soil fumigants such as methyl bromide have also been determined by this technique [189]. Trifluoroacetic acid is a breakdown product of hydrofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbon refrigerant products in the atmosphere and, as such, due to the known toxicity of trifluoroacetic acid, it is important to be able to determine it in the atmosphere, water and in soil from an environmental point of view [190]. In this method the trifluoroacetic acid is extracted from the soil sample by sulfuric acid and methanol, which is then followed by the derivatisation of it to the methyl ester. The highly volatile methyl ester is then analysed with a recovery of 87% using headspace gas chromatography. Levels of trifluoroacetic acid in soil down to 0.2 ng/g can be determined by the procedure. 

Photoreactions are often complex reactions that not only control the fate of many chemicals in air and water, but often produce products with chemical, physical, and biological properties quite different from those of their parent compounds more water soluble, less volatile, and less likely to be taken up by biota. Photooxidation removes many potentially harmful chemicals from the environment, although occasionally more toxic products form in oil slicks and from pesticides (Larson et al., 1977). Biogeochemical cycling of organic sulfur compounds in marine systems involves photooxidation on a grand scale in surface waters, as well as in the troposphere (Brimblecombe and Shooter, 1986). 

A characteristic of organic sulfur compounds, especially volatile (low molecular mass) thiols, is their disagreeable odors. For example, 3-methyl-1-butanethiol and 2-butene-1-thiol are ingredients of a skunk s perfume, and methanethiol or ethanethiol is usually added, in small amounts, to natural gas, which is odorless by itself, so that leaks can be readily detected. The chemical properties of thiols and sulfides differ from those of alcohols and ethers in that thiols are somewhat stronger acids than alcohols and the sulfur atoms of these compounds are considerably more nucleophilic than the oxygen of their analogs. They are excellent nucleophiles in substitution reactions. 

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