Direct determination of quinones in fine atmospheric particulate matter by GC-MS

This paper focuses on the direct determination of quinones, such as 1,4-benzoquinone, 1,2-naphthoquinone, 1,4-naphthoquinone, 9,10-phenanthraquinone and 9,10-anthraquinone, in fine atmospheric particulate matter (DP < 2.5 μm) samples collected from the ground beneath a bus terminal by a gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. The quinones were determined in nonderivatized and acetylated derivatized forms in order to evaluate the feasibility of their direct determination. The following parameters were assessed: linear range, linearity, precision, limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantification (LOQ). The limits of detection were found to be 0.01-2.18 mg L− 1 for the quinones determined in the nonderivatized form and 0.05-0.20 mg L− 1 for those in the acetylated derivatized form. The limits of quantification were in the range of 0.05-4.37 mg L− 1 for quinones determined in the nonderivatized form and 0.35-0.47 mg L− 1 for those in the acetylated derivatized form. The methods were successfully applied to 86 real samples of atmospheric particulate matter collected from the inside of a bus terminal. The concentration levels ranged from 0.32 to 3.38 ng m− 3 for quinones determined in the nonderivatized form and 0.29 to 4.75 ng m− 3 for those in the acetylated derivatized form. By analyzing the principal components as well as the correlation between data with and without derivatization, the form of the quinones, derivatized or nonderivatized, did not matter for determination purposes.