Gschwend%20thesis.pdf

-25-
Novotny et aL., 1974; Dowty et aL., 1975; Bertsch et aL., 1975; Hites,
1977). These advances were primarily of twö kinds. First, solid ad-
sorbents were investigated for their ability to collect and retain vola-
tile organic materials from air streams. Tenax, a polymer of 2,6-
diphenyl-phenylene oxide, is found to adsorb volatiles and is ther-
mally stable. Thus, a Tenax trap may be used to collect a volatile con-
centrate and can be directly inserted into the injection port of a gas
chromatograph for thermal desorption of the volatiles. Charcoal has also
been used in traps by Grob and his coworkers (Grob and Zürcher,
1976) . This trap can be extracted with a small amount of solvent pro-
viding a concentrated volatile sample.
The second important advance was the availability of glass capillary
gas chromatography. This facilitates the separation of hundreds of com-
pounds per analysis and enables the efficient analysis of complex natural
mixtures. These together allowed rapid and routine recovery, separation,
identification, and quantification of a chemically diverse group of vola-
tile organic compounds.
SUMMY
This thesis reports the application of current technology to the
study of an "analytical window'" of volatile organic compounds in seawater.
The literature suggests that the total volatiles in this analytical
window are present in seawater in concentrations of about 1-10 ug/kg.
Also there is ample evidence for both natural and anthropogenic sources
of volatile organic compounds to seawater.
Work in this field has added to our knowledge of the identity of
some organic reactants occurring in seawater, 'the size of the volatile
fraction and its relation to the larger organic carbon pool, the