Application of Adsorption Sampling and Thermal Desorption with GC/MS Analysis for the Measurement of Low-Molecular Weight PAHs in Ambient Air

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been of particular concern since they are present both in the vapor and particulate phases in ambient air. In this study, a simple method was applied to determine the vapor phase PAHs, and the performance of the new method was evaluated with a conventional method. The simple method was based on adsorption sampling and thermal desorption with GC/MS analysis, which is generally applied to the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air. A combination of Carbotrap (300 mg) and Carbotrap-C (100 mg) sorbents was used as the adsorbent. Target compounds included two rings PAHs such as naphthalene, acenaphthylene, and acenaphthene. Among them, naphthalene was listed as one of the main HAPs together with a number of VOCs in petroleum refining industries in the USA. For comparison purposes, a method based on adsorption sampling and solvent extraction with GC/MS analysis was adopted, which is in principle same as the NIOSH 5515 method. The performance of the adsorption sampling and thermal desorption method was evaluated with respect to repeatabilities, detection limits, linearities, and storage stabilities for target compounds. The analytical repeatabilities of standard samples are all within 20%. Lower detection limits was estimated to be less than 0.1 ppbv. In the results from comparison studies between two methods for real air samples. Although the correlation coefficients were more than 0.9, a systematic difference between the two groups was revealed by the paired t-test (${\alpha}$=0.05). Concentrations of two-rings PAHs determined by adsorption and thermal desorption method consistently higher than those by solvent extraction method. The difference was caused by not only the poor sampling efficiencies of XAD-2 for target PAHs and but also sample losses during the solvent extraction and concentration procedure. This implies that the levels of lower molecular PAHs tend to be underestimated when determined by a conventional PAH method utilizing XAD-2 (and/or PUF) sampling and solvent extraction method. The adsorption sampling and thermal desorption with GC analysis is very simple, rapid, and reliable for lower-molecular weight PAHs. In addition, the method can be used for the measurement of VOCs in the air simultaneously. Therefore, we recommend that the determination of naphthalene, the most volatile PAH, will be better when it is measured by a VOC method instead of a conventional PAH method from a viewpoint of accuracy.

환경대기 중 저분자 PAHs 측정을 위한 흡착-열탈착-GC/MS 방법의 적용