On-line enrichment and determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in atmospheric particulates using high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence as detector

Seven polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in atmospheric particulates were determinated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detector using direction injection and an on-line enrichment trap column. The method simplified the sample pretreatment, saved time and increased the efficiency. With the on-line trap column, PAHs were separated availably even underground injecting 1.0 ml sample with relatively high column efficiency. The recoveries of the seven PAHs were from 85% to 120% for spiked atmospheric particulate sample. The limit of detection was 15.3–39.6 ng/L(S/N=3.3). There were good linear correlations between the peak areas and concentrations of the seven kinds of PAHs in the range of 1–50 ng/ml with the correlation coefficients over 0.9970. Furthermore, it also indicated that the method is available to determine PAHs in atmospheric particulates well.