Paint Thinner Analysis Utilizing Headspace GC-MS

Paint thinners, which are utilized to lessen the viscosity of paints, consist primarily of toluene, and contain other substances such as ethyl acetates and alcohols. As these compounds have anesthetic and excitatory properties, “paint sniffing”, or abuse by intentional inhalation, has become a social problem, leading to regulations targeting the inhalation of paint thinner for such purposes [1, 2] . Since GC-MS systems are often utilized in place of GC in scientific crime detection, this experiment investigated the ability of Headspace GC-MS to measure ethyl acetate, toluene, and methanol.