Surface contamination sampling methods

By using a laser with less power and the beam spread over a larger area, it is possible to sample a surface. In this approach, after each laser shot, the laser is directed onto a new area of surface, a technique known as surface profiling (Figure 2.4c). At the low power used, only the top few nanometers of surface are removed, and the method is suited to investigate surface contamination. The normal surface yields characteristic ions but, where there are impurities on the surface, additional ions appear. 

PVP, a water soluble amine-based pol5mer, was found to be an optimum protective agent because the reduction of noble metal salts by polyols in the presence of other surfactants often resulted in non-homogenous colloidal dispersions. PVP was the first material to be used for generating silver and silver-palladium stabilized particles by the polyol method [231-233]. By reducing the precur-sor/PVP ratio, it is even possible to reduce the size of the metal particles to few nanometers. These colloidal particles are isolable but surface contaminations are easily recognized because samples washed with the solvent and dried in the air are subsquently not any more pyrophoric [231,234 236]. 

Dinitroaniline herbicides have low soil mobility potential. Herbicide residues in the treated field are usually incorporated into the upper layers of the soil mainly as unextractable bound residue therefore, the movement of dinitroaniline herbicides from soil to the water compartment is minimal. Run-off is the principal route, which could lead to the contamination of surface waters. Residue methods were developed to measure the parent concentration in water samples. 

Samples underwent sonication in hot, soapy water for 15 minutes, to ensure surfaces were clean and free of any surface contamination. The more elaborate preparation method of Carter (10, 13) was not utilized because visual and 7-30X microscopic examination of each coin revealed no remaining encrustation or patination. 

The most frequently used methods for sampling indoor surface dust for SVOC/ POM analysis is simply to use dust from a vacuum cleaner dust bag, see for example, Krause, Chutsch and Englert (1989), or a special vacuum cleaner mouthpiece containing a filter, see for example, 0ie, Hersoug and Madsen (1997). Both the mouth-piece and the filter should be cleaned prior to use. It must be assured that the SVOCs and POMs of interest are quantitatively captured by the filter (e.g., phthalates are quantitatively captured by quartz fiber filters (Clausen and Wolkoffi 1997b)) and that the vacuum cleaner exhaust does not contaminate the samples with for example, phthalates. However, the vacuum cleaner sampling method is probably very dependent on the sampling conditions (e.g., carpet or hard floor... 

An important issue, for example, may be whether the measurement value is to apply to a specific sample or to the bulk of its source material. When surface contamination is the purpose of the measurement, total trace-element measurements could be misleading. Thus, surface sampling may have to be part of the protocol. Conversely, measurement methods that give results preferentially for surface layers may not be representative of the bulk of the subsample. 

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