Simultaneous determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their nitrated derivatives in airborne particulates by HPLC with fluorescence/chemiluminescence detection.

Abstract

A simultaneous determination method for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)and nitro-PAHs (NPAHs) in airborne particulates was developed. Airborne particulates were extracted with benzene/ethanol, cleaned up by liquid-liquid partition, refluxed in the presence of NaSH and then the resultant solution was injected into an HPLC system. The system was hybridized into two systems with different optimum conditions for PAHsand NPAHs by introducing a switching valve and a mini separation column. Mobil ephases were acetonitrile/water (75 : 25) for PAHs, and acetonitrile/imidazole HClO4 buffer (1:1) for NPAHs and the postcolumn reagent solution for NPAHs was an acetonitrile solution containing bis(2, 4, 6-trichlorophenyl)oxalate and H2O2. By this method, four NPAHs (1, 3-, 1, 6-, 1, 8-dinitropyrenes and 1-nitropyrene) and eight PAHs (fluoranthene, pyrene, benz[a]anthracene, chrysene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[a] pyrene and coronene) in sub-milligram quantities of airborne particulates were de-termined chemilumigenically and fluorogenically, respectively using 2-fluoro-7-nitrofluorene as an internal standard within sixty minutes.