Superfund Research Program

December 2023

A car with the MOIRA instrument sitting in the back plus a close up of the MOIRA instrument
MOIRA will be used to better understand VOC exposures. (Photo courtesy of the University of Louisville SRP Center)

Researchers at the University of Louisville Superfund Research Program (SRP) Center have gained new insights into levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the environment using the Multichannel Organics In-situ enviRonmental Analyzer (MOIRA) instrument. MOIRA is a mobile gas chromatography-mass spectrometry instrument which measures compounds in the air continuously at 10-minute time intervals.

The technology was developed by Brent Williams, Ph.D., and doctoral student Audrey Dang as part of a center project to better detect and characterize VOCs in indoor and outdoor air.

Technology MOIRA allows researchers to measure compounds at original sites of exposure. It integrates continued measurements of air contaminants using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry with passive sampling data that can then be used to build spatiotemporal models that estimate ambient VOCs.
Innovation Small size, mobility, and ability to measure hundreds of compounds in real time. The instrument quantified more than 100 compounds in indoor air during a residential indoor air study. This technology allows researchers to characterize the concentration of VOCs in indoor and outdoor air, helping them identify populations at most risk of VOC exposure.
Contaminant and Media VOCs in indoor and outdoor air.
Principal Investigator Michael H. Nantz, Sanjay Srivastava
Institution The University of Louisville SRP Center
Grant Number P42ES023716