Determination of nitrated polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in particulate extracts by capillary column gas chromatography with nitrogen selective detection

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ac00262a027

The highly complex matrix of a diesel particulate extract was analyzed for nitrated polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (nitro-PAH) by use of fused-silica capillary column GC/thermionic nitrogen-phosphorus (GC/NPD) analysis of HPLC fractions. These samples were found to contain at least 100 nitro-PAH. Positive isomer identification for 17 nitro-PAH has been made utilizing the GC retention times of authentic standards and low- and high-resolution mass spectra as criteria. An additional 45 nitro-PAH were tentatively identified by using one or more of these techniques. Quantitative GC/MS analysis of 1-nitropyrene, 1,3-dinitropyrene, 1,6-di-nitropyrene, and 1,8-dinitropyrene was facilitated by the use of perdeuterated analogues of these compounds as internal standards. Detection limits by the GC/NPD method range between 0. 2 and 0. 5 ppm for the HPLC fractionated samples.