Objective: To establish capillary column GC/MS method for the determination of 35 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in airborne suspended particulate.
Methods: The air samples collected by an electrostatic particle collector were Soxhlet-extracted using 3:1 benzene/ethanol, and then subjected to the procedures of concentration and clean-up. Finally, the target PAHs were determined by the proposed method.
Results: All the target PAHs could be well separated except for benzo[b] fluoranthene, benzo[j] fluoranthene and benzo [k] fluoranthene through temperature programming. The relative standard deviations of the method were 1.8%-17.7% and the recoveries ranged from 93.4% to 101.9%. The absolute detection limit ranged from 0.0001 ng to 0.1 ng.
Conclusion: The method is applicable to the determination of more than 30 PAHs in the airborne suspended particulate samples.