Determination of sixteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in PM_2.5 by UHPLC

Objective To establish an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography(UHPLC) method for the simultaneous determination of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) in the atmosphere, and this method is used for analyzing the pollution characteristic of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the PM_2.5 of urban atmosphere.

Methods After sampling the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the atmosphere through the quartz filter membrane, the quartz filter membrane was cut into pieces with ceramic scissors. We used ether and n-hexane as the extraction liquid. The extraction was carried out ultrasonically for 30 minutes. After centrifugation, the supernatant was quickly blown dry with nitrogen, and the volume was made constant with an acetonitrile-water (60:40, V/V) solution. We used Venusil PAH column (4.6×250 mm, 5.0 μm) for separation, used water-acetonitrile as the mobile phase for gradient elution, and used UV detector and Fluorescence detector to detect 16 kinds of Cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons for qualitatively and quantitatively analysis.

Results The peak area detected by this method and the content of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons showed a good linear relationship in the concentration range of 0.10-10.0 μg/mL, the correlation coefficient (r) was between 0.995-0.999; Detection limit of method was between 0.02-0.30 ng/m³, the relative standard deviation was 0.42%-9.37%, the recovery range is 60.7%-90.4%.

Conclusion The method is simple in operation, high in separation efficiency, high in sensitivity, accurate and reliable, and can be used for the detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in PM_2.5.