Js. Gaffney et al., CAPILLARY GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF NITROGEN-DIOXIDE AND PANS WITH LUMINOL CHEMILUMINESCENT DETECTION, Atmospheric environment, 32(8), 1998, pp. 1445-1454
Peroxyacyl nitrates (PANs) and nitrogen dioxide are important atmosphe
ric air pollutants in the troposphere. These atmospheric nitrogen spec
ies are strongly coupled chemically by a clearly temperature-dependent
equilibrium in the troposphere. A chemical method that can measure bo
th nitrogen dioxide and PANs rapidly and with sub-part-per-billion det
ection is described that is based upon a modified luminol detection sy
stem coupled to a capillary gas chromatographic column by using helium
as a carrier. The system can readily separate and detect nitrogen dio
xide, peroxyacetyl nitrate, peroxyproprionyl nitrate, and peroxybutyrl
nitrate with detection limits in the low tens of parts per trillion w
ith total analysis time of less than 1 min. Calibration of PAN by ther
mal decomposition to nitrogen dioxide is demonstrated with PAN detecti
on sensitivities approximately 75% of the sensitivities observed for N
O2 luminol detection by using helium as a carrier gas. The advantages
of this method for simultaneous measurement of nitrogen dioxide and PA
Ns over ozone chemiluminescent detection and electron capture detectio
n are discussed, as well as potential applications of this method for
heterogeneous surface chemistry studies of PANS and nitrogen dioxide a
nd for tropospheric measurements. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r
ights reserved.