A program is described for evaluating the efficiency of solid sorbers for collecting trace quantities of hydrogen fluoride, phosphine, hydrogen cyanide, chlorine, and fluorine in work atmospheres for subsequent laboratory analysis. The gas handling and sampling instrumentation is described, and experimental results to date are presented. Sodium acetate is a very efficient sorber for hydrogen fluoride, and its solubility in water proves to be highly advantageous for subsequent HF determination by ion selective electrode. Potassium permanganate impregnated silica gel sorbs phosphine effectively, and Ascarite has been found to sorb hydrogen cyanide, but quantitative experiments on the latter two systems are still in progress. Work on chlorine and fluorine systems will be initiated in the near future. 1.

This report describes a system capable of producing well-defined test atmospheres of mercury in air or other diluent gas at concentrations between 0.005 and 0.5 ug/1 and an analytical system for the analysis of these gas mixtures. Various parameters that affect the generator and analytical system and their interactions are discussed. This gas delivery system provides a means of calibration of the various analytical systems for mercury now in use. The analytical unit of the system can also be used for the determination of mercury in industrial atmospheres by collecting the mercury on a silver wool collector, and then desorbing it by heat into a flameless atomic absorption spectrometer. 1 .

Investigations to find suitable solid sorber materials for phosphine in work atmospheres at the ppm level are described.The best sorber to date is silver nitrate-impregnated silica gel. Some difficulties remain to be overcome before a procedure for determining the amount of phosphine adsorbed can be recommended.1.