The long-term thrust of the proposed research is to develop and characterize the performance of four promising polyimide sorbents which can be used for collecting toxic, mutagenic, or carcinogenic chemicals from workplace, indoor or outdoor air, and performing chemical and biological assays on the collected samples. The extent to which the air sampling process maintains idealality with the polyimide sorbents is proposed for study. Laboratory experiments are planned to gain insight to the fundamental and practical understanding of those factors which may produce nonideal behavior. The specific objective is to develop a well-defined sampling sorbent based on polyimide polymers which gives an accurate and precise picture of the toxic, mutagenic or carcinogenic composition of air. Specifically, the following issues will be investigated: (a) the relationship of air humidity to analyte retention by the polyimide sorbent during sampling; (b) the composition, if any, between different analytes in a mixture for sorption sites on the polyimide sorbent and the extent that collection efficiency might be altered; (c) the potential chemical transformation reactions occuring on the polyimide sorbent's surface when sampling in the presence of ractive inorganic gases; (d) the recovery of toxic, mutagenic, or carcinogenic analytes collected on polyimide sorbents and stored for prolonged periods of time; and (e) the chemical characterization of workplace, indoor, and outdoor air during field testing the sampling sorbents. The proposed research also has the long-term implication of a capability for bio-assaying organic vapors in air under conditions accurately simulating original air environments. By collecting all organic vapors from a parcel of air, and preserving its original qualitative and quantitative composition, the sample can then be introduced into a bioassay whereby the potential synergism or antognism of the mixture is fully expressed. This capability should be a significant contribution to designing future health-related studies.
