Determination of toxic organic pollutants in fine particulate matter using selective pressurized liquid extraction and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

Studies investigating toxic organic pollutants in fine dust (PM2.5), such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), are insufficient, despite the pollutants’ potent toxicity. The objective of this study is to develop an analytical method for determining PAHs, OCPs and PCBs in ambient PM2.5 using selective pressurized liquid extraction (SPLE). To maximize the extraction efficiency of target analytes, the extraction parameters of SPLE, particularly solvent type, temperature, static time, and cycle number, were optimized. The highest recoveries were observed under the conditions of dichloromethane:acetone (9:1), 100℃, 5 min of static time, and 1 cycle extraction, which is selected as the optimal method of SPLE. In the method validation, the results showed that the suggested method can quantify 17 PAHs, 20 OCPs, and 63 PCBs in PM2.5. Using urban dust SRM (1648a) and ambient PM2.5 samples, the applicability of the method was also confirmed. Total concentration of PAHs was the highest (2639.42–7377.75 pg/m3) followed by OCPs (80.57–674.69 pg/m3) and PCBs (1.39–9.34 pg/m3). Most of the PAHs were detected, whereas 2–7 compounds among 20 OCPs and 2–6 compounds among 63 PCBs were determined. The developed analytical method is highly efficient in terms of process (a one-step extraction process), time (15 min extraction time per one sample) and solvent usage (less than 30 mL per one sample), showing good performance. This method can be applied to investigate the organic toxicants in PM2.5, and it can contribute to monitoring and risk assessment, leading to an effective risk management policy for PM2.5 in Korea.