THE DETECTION OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC COMPOUNDS IN AIR SAMPLES BY GC×GC-TOFMS

Abstract

Multidimensional Gas Chromatography-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry is a relatively new, highly versatile and productive technique that is ideally suited for the detection of PACs in environmental samples. Air samples collected in Slocan Park in Vancouver and in Langley, BC (a semi-rural site) during the PACIFIC 2001 field study and aerosol samples from St. Anicet in Quebec (a rural site) collected in2006 were analyzed for their PAC content. In addition to the parent PAH, many alkylated-PAH, oxygen, sulphur and nitrogen heterocyclic analogues of the parent PAH were detected. Many of the PAHs observed at these sites were also found in diesel exhaust.

Analysis of pyrene metabolites in marine snails by liquid chromatography using fluorescence and mass spectrometry detection

“…They are released into the environment both naturally and through human activities as combustion products and components of fossil fuels [3,4]. They are widely distributed throughout the environment and detected in highly variable concentrations in air [5], water [6], sediment and biota [7,8]. In the environment, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) exhibit a diverse range of reactivities including photochemical oxidation [9], fungal and bacterial catabolism [10,11], biotransformation by organisms [12,13] and hydrolysis of conjugated species [14].…”

Analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Ambient Aerosols by Using One-Dimensional and Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography Combined with Mass Spectrometric Method: A Comparative Study

“…Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) can screen for nontarget compounds with fast identification of the compounds in an entire sample [ 10 ]. Therefore, previous studies applied GC×GC-MS for the identification of numerous compounds present in air samples [ 11 – 13 ]. However, there are limitations on the validation of simultaneous quantification and identification of analytes in air samples.…”