State-of-the-Art Facilities and Instrumentation

Berkeley Analytical maintains state-of-the-art chamber facilities and GC/MS instrumentation.

We operate small-scale and mid-scale environmental chambers for product testing, which have been designed following ASTM Standards D 5116 and D 6670. Field and Laboratory Emission Cells (FLEC®) also are available. All of the flow rates for air inlet and gas sampling are regulated with electronic mass flow controllers, sampling events are electronically timed, and environmental data are continuously monitored and recorded. Our ISO/IEC 17025 accredited quality management system assures that flow rate, temperature, humidity, and other measurements are within specifications for reproducibility and accuracy. We currently operate the following environmental chambers for product testing:

  • 26 Small-scale chambers—67 L electro-polished stainless steel
  • 4 Mid-scale chambers—6 & 14 m3 with polished stainless steel inner surfaces
  • 2 Field and Laboratory Emission Cells—FLEC®, Chematec

Air samples for field studies and product emission tests are analyzed for VOCs using thermal desorption GC/MS instrumentation. Samples for formaldehyde and other aldehydes are collected using DNPH chemistry and analyzed by HPLC. The analysis of phthalate esters, flame retardants and other target SVOCs in products and in environmental samples such as air, surface wipes and dust is performed by an ion trap GC/MS system with MS/MS capabilities. Our GC/MS instrumentation consists of:

Thermal Desorption - Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (TD-GC/MS)

  • Model 6890N Gas Chromatograph, Agilent
  • Model 5973N Mass Spectrometer, Agilent
  • ULTRA Multi-tube Autosampler and UNITY Thermal Desorber, Markes International, Ltd.

Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS)

  • Model 4000 Gas Chromatograph / MS / MS, Varian
  • Combi PAL Sample Injection System, CTC Analytics