Identification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in extracts of diesel particulate matter by supercritical fluid chromatography coupled with an ultraviolet multichannel detector

The identification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in the fraction of an extract from diesel particulate matter has been performed in order to demonstrate the performance of supercritical fluid chromatography with carbon dioxide as the mobile phase coupled with an ultraviolet multichannel detection system. As a result, 11 of 16 EPA priority pollutants, PAHs and benzo(e)pyrene, were identified by performing two actual analyses assisted by a microcomputerized retention prediction system without any trial-and-error experiments. This work clearly shows that the approach discussed herein has a high potential for analysis of various kinds of complex mixtures of polyaromatics.