ABSTRACT
The quantitative analysis of organic lead in ambient air is a delicate task due to the very low abundance of the individual compounds. The lead dithizonate method suffers a serious drawback because it is nonspecific towards individual alkyllead compounds. Furthermore, alkyllead salts and inorganic lead salts may interfere. These compounds have low vapor pressures and are mainly found on particles. An enrichment technique is generally necessary to detect trace amounts of air pollutants. Cryocondensation, adsorption on porous polymer or on activated carbon, and chemosorption are examples of enrichment techniques used for airborne alkyllead. Gas chromatography with packed columns is the only method reported for the separation of alkyllead compounds in environmental samples. A variety of detectors have been used for the analysis of alkyllead compounds in gasoline. Calibration is usually made by applying a known amount of tetraalkyllead standard prior to the trap and evaporating it by drawing a known amount of purified air through the trap.
