Real-time quantitative detection of styrene in atmosphere in presence of other volatile-organic compounds using a portable device

Exposure to styrene is a major safety concern in the fibreglass processing industry. This compound is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a possible human carcinogen. Several types of analytical equipment exist for detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere; however, most of them operate ex-situ or do not provide easy discrimination between different molecules. This work introduces an improved and portable method based on FTIR spectroscopy to analyse toxic gaseous substances in working sites down to a concentration of less than 4 ppm. Styrene and a combination of VOCs typically associated with it in industrial processes, such as acetone, ethanol, xylene and isopropanol, have been used to calibrate and test the methodology. The results demonstrate that the technique offers the possibility to discriminate between different gaseous compounds in the atmosphere with a high degree of confidence and obtain very accurate quantitative information on their concentration, down to the ppm level, even when different VOCs are present in a mixture.