Analysis of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Nitropolycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Gas/Particle Phases Separately Collected by a High-volume Air Sampler Equipped with a Column Packed with XAD-4 Resin

Abstract

We developed a sampler for collecting atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nitropolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (NPAHs) by attaching a glass column packed with XAD-4 resin to the gas sampling port of a high-volume air sampler equipped with a filter. When the upper and bottom layers of the column were packed with 64 g and 32 g of XAD-4 resin, respectively, all PAHs and NPAHs in the gas phase were quantitatively collected in the XAD-4 resin column without any break through, while PAHs and NPAHs in the particle phase were collected on the filter. We collected air samples at suburban and downtown Kanazawa by using the proposed sampler. It was found that about 95% of 2-3 ring PAHs and more than 99% of 2-ring NPAHs existed chiefly in the gas phase, that 4-ring PAHs such as fluoranthene (FR) and pyrene (Pyr) and 3-ring NPAHs were in both the gas and particle phases and that the other PAHs and NPAHs having 4-rings or more except for FR and Pyr were almost completely in the particle phase. Our data also indicated that the adsorption of NPAHs to the particle phase in the atmosphere is controlled by the same mechanism as that of PAHs.