Atmospheric Measurement Techniques www.atmos-meas-tech.net 1867-1381 1867-8548 3 3 2010 10.5194/amt-3-683-2010 http://www.atmos-meas-tech.net/3/683/2010/ http://www.atmos-meas-tech.net/3/683/2010/amt-3-683-2010.html http://www.atmos-meas-tech.net/3/683/2010/amt-3-683-2010.pdf 683 691 2010-06-16 Development and validation of a portable gas phase standard generation and calibration system for volatile organic compounds P. Veres Patrick.veres@noaa.gov J. B. Gilman J. M. Roberts W. C. Kuster C. Warneke I. R. Burling J. de Gouw Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA Chemical Sciences Division, Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, CO 80305, USA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA University of Montana, Department of Chemistry, Missoula, USA We report on the development of an accurate, portable, dynamic calibration system for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The Mobile Organic Carbon Calibration System (MOCCS) combines the production of gas-phase VOC standards using permeation or diffusion sources with quantitative total organic carbon (TOC) conversion on a palladium surface to CO₂ in the presence of oxygen, and the subsequent CO₂ measurement. MOCCS was validated using three different comparisons: (1) TOC of high accuracy methane standards compared well to expected concentrations (3% relative error), (2) a gas-phase benzene standard was generated using a permeation source and measured by TOC and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with excellent agreement (<4% relative difference), and (3) total carbon measurement of 4 known gas phase mixtures were performed and compared to a calculated carbon content to agreement within the stated uncertainties of the standards. Measurements from laboratory biomass burning experiments of formic acid by negative-ion proton-transfer chemical-ionization mass spectrometry (NI-PT-CIMS) and formaldehyde by proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), both calibrated using MOCCS, were compared to open path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR) to validate the MOCCS calibration and were found to compare well (<i>R</i>² of 0.91 and 0.99, respectively). 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