A Newly Designed Solid-Phase Extraction-type Collection Device for Precise Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Air.

A newly designed styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer adsorbent packed solid-phase extraction (SPE)-type collection device for the quantitative determination of airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) containing two to five rings is reported in this manuscript. This SPE-type collection device offers rapid, easy and quantitative elution of the analytes and easier reuse. A small collection device was initially developed for investigating the basic collection and elution performances of the adsorbent with respect to PAHs. The analytes were quantitatively collected on the adsorbent up to 3 m3 of air sampling at a sampling temperature of 35°C. The collected analytes were then completely eluted from the adsorbent by passing 3 mL of dichloromethane without carry-over of the analyte. During air collection, because no moisture was trapped on the adsorbent, the subsequent gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis was not influenced by moisture. Based on these successful performances, a wide-bore collection device was introduced for collecting larger air samples. After a quantitative investigation of the collection and elution performances of the wide-bore collection device, it device was successfully applied for precise determinations of PAHs in atmospheric air. Further application and employment of the device for the precise determination of semi-volatile organic compounds in environmental air samples is expected due to these excellent results.