Derivatization and analysis of levoglucosan and PAHs in ambient air particulate matter by moderate temperature thermal desorption coupled with GC/MS.

A thermal desorption method followed by GC/MS analysis has been developed for efficient analysis of levoglucosan in particulate matter. The method requires the sample derivatization using N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl) trifluoroacetamide with 1% of trimethylchlorosilane. The reaction is carried out directly in the liner of a commercial thermo-desorption system under optimised conditions of temperature, 20°C, and reaction time, 5 minutes. A low temperature of 150°C is used for desorption, minimizing possible artefacts formation and allowing simultaneous detection of PAHs. The method is evaluated on standard reference material NIST 1649a and applied on ambient air samples. The overall analytical expanded uncertainty (OEU) for levoglucosan at concentrations of 500 ng/m3 in air is around 25 %, whilst its detection limit (LoD) is circa 50 ng/m3. OEU and LoD for benzo[a]pyrene are 20 % and 95 pg/m3, respectively.

GRANDESSO Emanuela;  PEREZ BALLESTA Pascual; 

2014-09-22

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY

JRC89849

1759-9660,   

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2014/AY/C4AY00430B#!divAbstract,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC89849,   

10.1039/c4ay00430b,