[Polycyclic aromatics in airborne dusts and emissions: profiles, the problem of determining origin and the role of...

Already different possibilities were proposed for source identification of polycyclic aromatics. The following aspects are discussed in the present paper: the ratios of benzo(a)-pyrene to benzo(ghi)perylene and to coronene, the presence of individual compounds, the profiles of di- and polycycles containing sulfur, the complete profiles, the intensities of homolog series of polycycles. Essentially basing on the results by high resolution-low voltage mass spectrometry but also by disagreements in the results of different authors it is proved that none of these considerations are useful for determining origin of polycyclic aromatics. It is considered, if some proposals simply were motivated by insufficient analytics. In this connection important analytical methods and results obtained therewith are discussed. The following estimation is given for domestic ovens with powers up to 9 k W: the ratio of total emission of polycycles from gas oven, oil oven, and coal oven is approximately 0.001:1:100. At such ratios already the distinction between the contributions of heating becomes difficult, because at a little part of coal heatings the emissions of them are predominant. Up to now the best separations of mixtures of polycycles succeeded by the high resolution-low voltage method. The multiplicity of types of compounds detected in various environmental samples and therewith the analytical difficulty is illustrated by novel graphic profiles. Because of the difficulties in determining exact structures of polycycles in environmental samples again the question is asked, if it is ingenious to maintain the principle of analyzing individual compounds.