New method to determination of naphthalene in ambient air using cold fiber-solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Abstract

Naphthalene, a highly volatile polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), is classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans and can be found in various environments. This paper describes a cold fiber (CF) solid phase microextraction (SPME) sampling method coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for determining naphthalene in ambient air. The method uses a 100μm polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fiber to generate gaseous standards using a permeation tube. The method shows good results for many validation parameters. The intra-assay precision shows a relative standard deviation (RSD) ranging from 1.04 to 8.11%; the limit of detection (LOD) is 0.33±0.01μg/m3, and the quantification limit (LOQ) is 0.55±0.01μg/m3. The method was applied to the determination of naphthalene from real samples collected from indoor and outdoor air. The results have shown the ability of the method to measure trace levels of naphthalene in the air in different environments.