Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their oxy-, nitro-, and hydroxy-oxidation products

Highlights: ► We describe a method for determining PAHs and their oxidation products. ► Solid-phase extraction was used to fractionate PAHs and their oxidation products. ► Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry methods were optimized. ► The developed method was applied to two particulate matter (PM) samples. - Abstract: A sensitive method has been developed for the trace analysis of PAHs and their oxidation products (i.e., nitro-, oxy-, and hydroxy-PAHs) in air particulate matter (PM). Following PM extraction, PAHs, nitro-, oxy-, and hydroxy-PAHs were fractionated using solid phase extraction (SPE) based on their polarities. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) conditions were optimized, addressing injection (i.e., splitless time), negative-ion chemical ionization (NICI) parameters, i.e., source temperature and methane flow rate, and MS scanning conditions. Each class of PAH oxidation products was then analyzed using the sample preparation and appropriate ionization conditions (e.g., nitro-PAHs exhibited the greatest sensitivity when analyzed with NICI–MS while hydroxy-PAHs required chemical derivatization prior to GC–MS analysis). The analyses were performed in selected-ion-total-ion (SITI) mode, combining the increased sensitivity of selected-ion monitoring (SIM) with the identification advantages of total-ion current (TIC). The instrumental LODs determined were 6–34 pg for PAHs, 5–36 pg for oxy-PAHs, and 1–21 pg for derivatized hydroxy-PAHs using electron ionization (GC-EI-MS). NICI–MS was found to be a useful tool for confirming the tentative identification of oxy-PAHs. For nitro-PAHs, LODs were 1–10 pg using negative-ion chemical ionization (GC-NICI-MS). The developed method was successfully applied to two types of real-world PM samples, diesel exhaust standard reference material (SRM 2975) and wood smoke PM.