Environmental monitoring of semi volatile polyciclic aromatic hydrocarbons by means of diffusive sampling devices and GC-MS analysis

A molecular diffusion-based sampling device (known as Analyst 2) is presented for the determination of semi-volatile polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's) in air. It has been developed from a previous model (i.e. Analyst), which was suitable for volatile hydrocarbons. The new model is capable of collect enough gaseous PAH's to allow GC-MS analysis of enriched samples after two-month exposition to either urban or suburban air. The adsorbing material adopted for enriching the PAH's, i.e. Carbopack C, allows good recoveries of analytes ranging from naphthalene to chrysene, when only a single solvent extraction is run at ambient temperature. Some field experiments generated gaseous PAH concentrations that were in agreement with those expected at urban and suburban sites.