HIGH-VOLUME AIR SAMPLER FOR PARTICLE AND GAS SAMPLING .2. USE OF BACKUP FILTERS TO CORRECT FOR THE ADSORPTION OF GAS-PHASE POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC-HYDROCARBONS TO THE FRONT FILTER
Km. Hart et Jf. Pankow, HIGH-VOLUME AIR SAMPLER FOR PARTICLE AND GAS SAMPLING .2. USE OF BACKUP FILTERS TO CORRECT FOR THE ADSORPTION OF GAS-PHASE POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC-HYDROCARBONS TO THE FRONT FILTER, Environmental science & technology, 28(4), 1994, pp. 655-661
Atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) levels were measured
to determine the degree to which the-adsorption of gaseous PAHs to fi
lters can cause artifacts in the differentiation of the gaseous and pa
rticulate fractions. Two filter/sorbent samplers were used. In the fir
st sampler, a quartz fiber filter (QFF) and a second backup QFF were u
sed. In the second sampler, a Teflon membrane filter (TMF) and a backu
p QFF were used. The amounts of material on the backup QFFs in the two
samplers provided two estimates of the amounts of gasphase adsorption
to-the front QFF in the first sampler and allowed corrections for gas
adsorption to that QFF. The corrections indicated that gas adsorption
to a front QFF in a conventional high-volume sampler would have cause
d overestimation of the partitioning parameter (F/TSP)/A by a factor o
f as much as 1.2-1.6, where F/A is the particle/gas ratio for a given
compound and TSP is the total suspended particulate matter concentrati
on (mu g/m(3)). The sampler with the TMF gave values for (F/TSP)/A tha
t were similar to the corrected QFF values.