Quantification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the NIST standard reference material (SRM1649A) urban dust...

A thermal desorption GC/MS technique has been developed for the quantification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in airborne particulate matter using the NIST Standard Reference Material (SRM1649a) Urban Dust. The technique was developed using standard linearity tests in order to establish optimum sample weights and optimum desorption and chromatographic parameters. This direct analysis technique eliminates the use of solvents in the sample preparation (reducing volatile component losses) and also significantly reduces the sample preparation time (no extraction procedure). The technique has been shown to give linearity in terms of the overall TIC response as well as for a prominent series of n-alkanes (C20-C33) and 10 NIST priority PAHs, 8 of which have been quantified. The technique is reported to be uniquely sensitive (PAH concentrations 2-6 mg kg(-1)) and reproducible (MW = 178-228 SD < or =0.228 mg kg(-1), < or =7%; MW = 252 SD < or =0.922 mg kg(-1), < or =33%) over the range of sample weights (1-5 mg). Such sample weights illustrate that the technique can be equally applied to the analysis of airborne particulate samples collected over short time periods (24-48 h) using only commonly used low-volume collection devices.