Optimization and validation of a low temperature microwave-assisted extraction method for analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in airborne particulate matter

Abstract

A low temperature microwave-assisted extraction method (MAE) is reported for the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in airborne particulate matter (PM). The main parameters affecting the extraction efficiency (choice of extractants, microwave power, and extraction time) were investigated and optimized. The optimized procedure requires a 20 ml mixture of acetone: n-hexane (1:1) for extraction of PAHs in PM at 150 W of microwave energy (20 min extraction time). Clean-up of MAE extracts was not found to be necessary. The optimized method was validated using two different SRM (1648-urban particulate matter and 1649a, urban dust). The results obtained are in good agreement with certified values. PAHs recoveries for both reference materials were between 79 and 122% with relative standard deviation ranging from 3 to 21%. Detection limits were determined based on blank determination using two kinds of quartz filter substrates ( n = 10), which ranged from 0.001 (0.03) ng m −3 (pg/μg) for B(k)Ft to 1.119 (37.3) for Naph in ng m −3 (pg/μg), respectively. The repeatability and day-to-day reproducibility obtained in this study were in the range of 4–16 and 3–25% for spiked standards and SRM 1649, respectively. The optimized and validated MAE technique was applied to the extraction of PAHs from a set of real world PM samples collected in Singapore. The sum of particulate-bound PAHs in outdoor PM ranged from 1.05 to 3.45 ng m −3 while that in indoor PM (cooking emissions) ranged from 27.6 to 75.7 ng m −3, respectively.