(60l) Direct Screening Analysis of PAHs in Atmospheric Particulate Matter with HS/SPME and GC/MS

Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are by-products of the combustion of organic matter and are carcinogenic compounds. Sources of atmospheric PAHs are mostly anthropogenic (e.g. motor vehicles, industrial processes, domestic heating, waste incineration, and tobacco smoke) and natural processes (e.g. forest fires and volcanic eruptions). Urban measurements of the atmospheric PAHs in several cities have been reported and several analytical methodologies have been employed to evaluate the PAHs contents in the atmosphere. A particularly promising extraction technique is headspace solid-phase microextraction HS/SPME due to its several advantages over other extraction techniques. It is a sample preparation technique that requires no solvents and permits sample transfer and analysis with little or no modifications to existing gas chromatographic mass spectrometer, GC/MS instruments. Methods employing SPME can be easily adaptable to extraction PAHs of airborne particulate matter especially those compounds lower than four congeners. The validation of the HS/SPME technique coupled to GC/MS for the analysis of PAH's in atmospheric particulate matter, collected in fiberglass filters using a High Volume Sampler instrument was explore. The validated methodology can be use to analyze qualitative and quantitative the PHA's compounds in air samples (TSP/PM10).