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Coupled-GC techniques for the characterisation of PAC in fuel and environmental samples

Journal Article · · Preprints of Papers, American Chemical Society, Division of Fuel Chemistry
OSTI ID:420578
; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Leeds (United Kingdom)
  2. Triton Analytics Corp., Houston, TX (United States)
Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons has long been identified as of considerable environmental concern. Originating from both natural and anthropogenic sources, many PAC exhibit significant carcinogenic and mutagenic properties which are critically dependent on structure. Although PAC occur naturally in fossil fuels, the predominant contributions to environmental pollution are caused by the combustion of organic fuels. Recent studies have identified characteristic source fingerprints for coke ovens, diesel and gasoline engines, road tunnels and wood combustion emissions. However, despite the wealth of literature on the identification of parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic heterocycles, little is known about the composition and concentration of the many substituted and heteroatom-containing PAC that are produced either by combustion processes or as products of atmospheric reactions and are potentially more of a health risk than parent PAH or are simply unknown. Due to the complexity of fuel and environmental samples which contain many hundreds of aliphatic, aromatic and polar compounds, multidimensional chromatographic methods which provide separation by virtue of chemical class (group-type) or by molecular mass can greatly simplify the identification of individual PAC. LC-GC has been used previously for quantitative analysis of PAH in diesel exhaust emission extracts urban air particulates and other fuel related applications. In this study, on-line coupled LC-GC techniques have been investigated for the identification of trace level PAC in a range of fuel feedstocks, combustion products and urban air particulate extracts. Positive identification of individual PAC was obtained by direct coupling of LC-GC to mass spectrometry and atomic emission detection.
OSTI ID:
420578
Report Number(s):
CONF-950801--
Journal Information:
Preprints of Papers, American Chemical Society, Division of Fuel Chemistry, Journal Name: Preprints of Papers, American Chemical Society, Division of Fuel Chemistry Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 40; ISSN 0569-3772; ISSN ACFPAI
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English