Determination of 1-nitropyrene in low volume ambient air samples by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

Abstract

To measure the actual exposure of a person to 1-nitropyrene (1-NP) in airborne particulate matter, it is considered more accurate to collect air samples with a portable air sampler than to sample at a fixed location. However, because the portable samplers can sample only small volumes, a sensitive method is needed to analyze the compounds that are collected on a filter. Here we describe a high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method with fluorescence detection that is sensitive and precise enough for use with portable air samplers. The developed column-switching system successfully removed the interfering substances in the samples with only a simple pretreatment. To improve the precision of the measurement, deuterated 1-NP was used as an internal standard, and it eluted immediately prior to 1-NP with sufficient resolution (R s , 1.50).The detection limit was 0.32 fmol/injection, and the calibration range was from 2 to 100 fmol. The proposed method was applied to determining 1-NP in fine airborne particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) at two sites with low pollution levels. 1-NP was detected in all samples at concentrations in the low fmol/m 3 range. The proposed method has enough sensitivity and precision to determine 1-NP in the limited air volume of the portable sampler.

Optimization of a Low Volume Extraction Method to Determine Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Aerosol Samples

“…Among the analytical methods most commonly used to identify and quantify PAHs are GC-MS and highperformance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-fluorescence) (Eiguren-Fernandez and Miguel, 2003). The use of other methods, such as HPLC-MS, is also possible and can be very efficient, but the associated costs may be prohibitive for many laboratories (Ohno et al, 2009).…”

Electroanalysis of Nitro and Amino Derivatives of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

“…The further development of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods and improvement in sensitivity of the new commercial LC-MS instruments, will probably contribute to the broader application of this method in analysis of NPAHs and APAHs [73][74][75][76]. Although the sensitivity of techniques such as HPLC with fluorescence [75,[77][78][79][80][81] or chemiluminescence detection [82][83][84] appears to be appropriate for examination of relatively pristine environmental samples, constraints on selectivity should be considered.…”

An improved method to determine PM-bound nitro-PAHs in ambient air

“…Ultrasound and soxhlet extraction with HPLC/FL are widely used (Albinet et al, 2008;Barrado et al, 2013). In this case, derivatization of the nitrocompounds is usually required, lengthening the analysis time (Albinet et al, 2008;Delhomme et al, 2007;Kakimoto et al, 2001;Ohno et al, 2009;Portet-Koltalo et al, 2008;Reisen and Arey, 2005;Tang et al, 2005). Other methods are based on gas chromatographic separation followed by electron capture detection (GC-ECD, Campbell and Lee, 1984), negative and positive ion chemical ionization mass spectrometry (GC-NCI-MS, Robbat et al, 1986;Bezabeh et al, 2003), or flame ionization detection (GC-FID, Paschke et al, 1992).…”