Objective  To developed a method for rapid determination of 54 kinds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including chloroform, 1, 1-dichloroethane, and styrene in drinking water by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) with purge and trap sampling.

  Methods  Totally 54 kinds of VOCs were enriched with purge and trap sampling, then were separated and determined with GC/MS. The concentrations of 54 kinds of VOCs in 65 drinking water samples collected in Beijing city were determined, and the VOCs in the samples were evaluated according to national standard limits.

  Results  All the regression equations showed a good linearity for detections of the 54 VOCs at concentrations ranging from 0 μg/L to 20.0 μg/L, with the correlation coefficients of greater than 0.995. The detection limits, recovery rates, and relative standard deviations of the method were within the ranges of 0.05 μg/L – 1.6 μg/L, 68.7% – 122.3%, and 0.5% – 12.4%, respectively. Totally 12 kinds of VOCs were detected in 65 drinking water samples, with the concentrations of 0.05 μg/L – 12.4 μg/L and the detection rates of 1% – 97%. The results of the detections demonstrated that the concentrations of 23 kinds of VOCs in all of the water samples were all under the limits of national standards.

  Conclusion  The established method is simple, sensitive, convenient, and efficient and it is suitable for the determination of 54 kinds of VOCs in drinking water samples. The concentrations of VOCs in drinking water in urban Beijing meet the national hygiene standards.