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Disclaimer What are Volatile Organic Compounds? Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are carbon-containing compounds that tend to evaporate readily. There doesn't seem to be a universally-accepted technical definition. Some sources define VOCs as organic compounds that boil at less than 200 degrees Fahrenheit; other definitions reference a vapor pressure of greater than 0.1 millimeters of mercury under standard conditions. The US EPA's Terms of Environment defines a VOC as "Any organic compound that participates in atmospheric photochemical reactions except those designated by EPA as having negligible photochemical reactivity." If that's not confusing enough check out the defintion in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations at 40 CFR Part 51.100(s). Wikipedia adds to the fun by throwing in some international definitions. However defined, all agree that there are many hundreds and perhaps thousands of different VOCs. Environmental regulations focus on a relatively small fraction of those, generally VOCs that see wide industrial use, are breakdown products of industrial chemicals, and/or are compounds known to be particularly toxic. There are many laboratory methods for analyzing VOCs. One of the most widespread is EPA's SW-846 Method 8260. There are several variants of this method, but they all include most of the compounds that attract the lion's share of interest at hazardous waste sites. Here's a list of the compounds included in Method 8260B: Acetone Acetonitrile Acrolein Acrylonitrile Allyl alcohol Allyl chloride Benzene Benzyl chloride Bis(2-chloroethyl)sulfide Bromoacetone Bromochloromethane Bromodichloromethane Bromoform Bromomethane n-Butanol 2-Butanone tert-Butyl alcohol Carbon disulfide Carbon tetrachloride Chloral hydrate Chlorobenzene Chlorodibromomethane Chloroethane 2-Chloroethanol 2-Chloroethyl vinyl ether Chloroform Chloromethane Chloroprene 3-Chloropropionitrile Crotonaldehyde 1,2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane 1,2-Dibromoethane Dibromomethane 1,2-Dichlorobenzene 1,3-Dichlorobenzene 1,4-Dichlorobenzene cis-1,4-Dichloro-2-butene trans-1,4-Dichloro-2-butene Dichlorodifluoromethane 1,1-Dichloroethane 1,2-Dichloroethane 1,1-Dichloroethene cis-1,2-Dichloroethene trans-1,2-Dichloroethene 1,2-Dichloropropane 1,3-Dichloro-2-propanol cis-1,3-Dichloropropene trans-1,3-Dichloropropene 1,2,3,4-Diepoxybutane Diethyl ether 1,4-Dioxane Epichlorohydrin Ethanol Ethyl acetate Ethylbenzene Ethylene oxide Ethyl methacrylate Hexachlorobutadiene Hexachloroethane 2-Hexanone 2-Hydroxypropionitrile Iodomethane Isobutyl alcohol Isopropylbenzene Malononitrile Methacrylonitrile Methanol Methylene chloride Methyl methacrylate 4-Methyl-2-pentanone Naphthalene Nitrobenzene 2-Nitropropane n-Nitroso-di-n-butylamine Paraldehyde Pentachloroethane 2-Pentanone 2-Picoline 1-Propanol 2-Propanol Propargyl alcohol B-Propiolactone Propionitrile n-Propylamine Pyridine Styrene 1,1,1,2-Tetrachloroethane 1,1,2,2-Tetrachloroethane Tetrachloroethene Toluene o-Toluidine 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene 1,1,1-Trichloroethane 1,1,2-Trichloroethane Trichloroethene Trichlorofluoromethane 1,2,3-Trichloropropane Vinyl acetate Vinyl chloride Xylene |
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