US EPA

8198659 

Journal Article 

A gas liquid chromatographic fluorescent procedure for the analysis of benzo(a)pyrene in 24 hour atmospheric particulate samples 

Mulik, J; Cooke, M; Guyer, MF; Semeniuk, GM; Sawicki, E 

1975 

20 

4 

786 

English 

Many attempts have been made, over the years, to develop a method for the assay of benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) in the complex mixture of organic compounds found in particulate matter. Techniques such as column chromatography, spectrophotometry, gas chromatography, thin layer chromatography, high pressure liquid chromatography, fluorimetry, and others have all been found to be unsatisfactory for reasons such as specificity, sensitivity and lack of simplicity. This paper describes a gas chromatographic method that is specific for the assay of particulate benzo(a)pyrene. Specificity is obtained optically by means of a gas phase fluorescence detector. By the proper selection of excitation and emission wavelengths benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) is optically resolved from the traditionally difficult-to-separate compounds such as benzo(e)pyrene, benzo(k)fluoranthene and perylene. Picograms of BaP/m3 of air can be assayed through injection of large volumes of sample with the gas phase injection technique. The combination of gas chromatography with gas phase fluorescence detection and gas phase injection provides the advantages of sensitivity, selectivity and speed of analysis that heretofore have not been achieved.