Assessment of methodologies for airborne BaP analysis

Very sensitive analytical methods will be required to assess airborne contaminants with the implementation of new EC Directives. In this work, Soxhlet, ultrasonic and microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) were applied to two airborne standard reference materials (SRM) 1648 “Urban Particulate Matter” and SRM 1649a “Urban Dust”. All three techniques afforded satisfactory results, but MAE was preferred due to its low solvent requirement and speed of analysis. In addition, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet and fluorescence detection was compared to gas chromatography (GC)-flame ionisation detection (FID) with programmed split–splitless injection (PSS) and GC-mass spectrometry (MS) with programmed temperature vaporiser (PTV) injection. The HPLC method proved far more sensitive than the GC techniques (four and three orders of magnitude, respectively). Real atmospheric particulate samples were taken at A Coruña (Spain). Different sampling devices were used to collect PM 10, PM 2.5, PM 1, cascade impactor and TSP/gas phase samples. BaP concentrations quantified in the samples are similar to those reported for other cities.