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

A molecular diffusion-based sampling device (known as Analyst 2) is present ed 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 a dopted 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 ur ban and suburban sites.