Development of rapid preparation method for simultaneous analysis of gas-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons using accelerated solvent extractor

We propose a rapid preparation method for the simultaneous analysis of gas-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OPAHs) by an accelerated solvent extractor (ASE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE). We used polyurethane foam (PUF) for collecting gas-phase PAHs and OPAHs. Recovery of selected PAHs and OPAHs from blank PUF ranged from 80 to 100 %, except for low molecular PAHs and OPAHs, such as acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, 1,4-naphthoquinone with a relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) of less than 5 %, while their recoveries from the collected PUF ranged from 80 to 120 %, except for benzanthrone with a R.S.D. from 10 % and 20 %. The proposed preparation method in combination with ASE and SPE could be useful for screening gas-phase PAHs and OPAHs, although there is a problem to some extent concerning the collection efficiencies of low molecular PAHs and OPAHs in the gas-phase. The application of the proposed method to samples collected at Shinjuku in June, 2012 revealed that the concentration of PAHs and OPAHs, mainly presented in the gas-phase, was significantly higher than that of PAHs and OPAHs, mainly presented in the particle phase.