Determination of Air Freshener Fragrance Components using Adsorbent Tubes and Gerstel TSD2/TDSA

Customer is interested in automated air sampling with Tenax TA adsorbent tubes to collect 5-minute time points to profile the fragrance from room air fresheners, followed by automated Thermal Desorption for GC/MSD analysis. We used the GS-1 gas sampler to collect blank, 1L and 20L samples in a closed room containing a Renuzit After the Rain air freshener. A sample of the air freshener gel was also dispersed in water and sampled using a Gerstel Twister stir bar. All samples were desorbed in a Gerstel TDS thermal desorber. High background interference was observed on the Tenax blank tube possibly from the carpeting or other surfaces in the room; this makes identification of the fragrance components difficult. Major fragrance component peaks were identified by Twister extraction of an aqueous dispersion. Extracted ion traces were then used to identify several fragrance peaks in the air samples.