Germanium – Determination of germanium and its non-volatile inorganic compounds in workplace air using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)
Air Monitoring Method – Translation of the German version from 2023
Katrin Pitzke1 (Method development)Cornelia Wippich1 (Method development)
Anita Woznica2 (External verification)
Ralph Hebisch2 (Head of the working group “Air Analyses” of the Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
Thomas Helmut Brock3 (Head of the working group “Analytics”)
Andrea Hartwig4 (Chair of the Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
MAK Commission5
1 Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the DGUV (IFA), German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV), Alte Heerstraße 111, 53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany
2 Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Friedrich-Henkel-Weg 1–25, 44149 Dortmund, Germany
3 German Social Accident Insurance, Institution for the raw materials and chemical industry, Prevention - Department of Hazardous Substances, Biological Agents and Analytical Chemistry, Kurfürsten-Analge 62, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany
4 Institute of Applied Biosciences, Department of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Adenauerring 20a, Building 50.41, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
5 Permanent Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Kennedyallee 40, 53175 Bonn, Germany
Abstract
The working group “Air Analyses” of the German Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area (MAK Commission) developed and verified the presented analytical method. This analytical method is a validated measurement procedure for the determination of germanium [7440-56-4] and its non-volatile compounds in workplace air in a concentration range of one tenth up to twice of the currently valid Occupational Exposure Limit Value (OELV) in Germany of 0.85 mg/m3 as germanium in the inhalable particle fraction. For sampling, a defined volume of air is drawn through a membrane filter (nitrocellulose). The flow rate is 10 l/min and sampling duration is 2 hours. Germanium is digested with a mixture of hydrofluoric and nitric acid in a microwave-assisted pressure digestion. The samples are subsequently analysed using mass spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-MS). The quantitative determination is based on a calibration function. The limit of quantification is 0.004 µg/m3 for an air sample volume of 1200 l and 20 ml digestion volume. The mean recovery is 97.2% for germanium and 97.9% for germanium dioxide. The expanded uncertainty for the validation range of 0.085 to 1.7 mg/m3 is 35.7 to 24.4%.
