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Selective Separation of Oxy-PAH from n-Alkanes and PAH in Complex Organic Mixtures Extracted from Airborne PM2.5

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Abstract

A fast and simple fractionation method was optimized to selectively separate oxy-PAH from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and n-alkanes contained in solvent extracted organic matter (SEOM) from atmospheric particles with an aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5). Samples were collected in Mexico City. Multivariate parameters were adjusted on a standard mixture, and on SEOM spiked with pure standard mixture solutions: type and amount of phase; packing densities; type, proportion and amount of solvents, and elution flow rates were tested under several elution schemes. Cyanopropylsilyl-bonded phase material was the selected stationary phase. The separation method was applied to real samples of SEOM (2.6, 5.6 and 8.5 mg) spiked with n-alkanes, PAH and oxy-PAH. n-Alkanes overlapped with PAH due to an excess of n-alkanes in real samples overloading the capacity of the stationary phase. Oxy-PAH was separated totally from n-alkanes and PAH. Mean recoveries ± confidence intervals (95%) for n-alkanes ranged from 53 ± 17% (n-tetracontane) to 101 ± 11% (n-hexacosane); for PAH from 58 ± 5% (phenanthrene) to 85 ± 9% (benzo[k]fluoranthene); and for oxy-PAH from 68 ± 12% (9,10-dihydrobenzo[a]pyren-7(8H)one) to 108 ± 9% (1,2-benzopyrone). This method is an efficient fractionation procedure to be applied to oxy-PAH, PAH and n-alkanes in complex organic mixtures extracted from PM2.5.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the Programa de Maestría y Doctorado en Ciencias Químicas, Coordinación de Estudios de Posgrado of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for a scholarship given to doctorate student Mario Alfonso Murillo Tovar. Projects PAPIIT IN230307 and IN116810-3 are thanked for financial support. Special thanks are extended to Dana Erickson and Winston Smith of the Peace Corps for the revision of this paper, to Leonel Hernández Mena, Edgar Antonio Pineda Arellano, Francisco Estrada Porrúa, Wilfrido Gutiérrez López, Manuel García-Espinoza, Josué Vázquez-Téllez, Maria de la Luz Medina Valtierra, Brenda Valle Hernández, Martha Elena Díaz Murillo and Apolinar Ibañez García for their technical assistance. Claudio Amescua and Pietro Villalobos for their writing assistance. R-VP and O-AM wishes to acknowledge the support of Varian-México, to Manuel Valencia of Alltech-GRACE Discovery Science-México for SPE consumables, to Manuel Muñoz and Alejandro Salazar of Agilent Technologies-México and Carlos Fragoso, Elizabeth Nariñan and Lino Gómez of ABC Instrumentación Analítica for facilities support.

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Correspondence to Mario Alfonso Murillo-Tovar.

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Murillo-Tovar, M.A., Amador-Muñoz, O., Villalobos-Pietrini, R. et al. Selective Separation of Oxy-PAH from n-Alkanes and PAH in Complex Organic Mixtures Extracted from Airborne PM2.5 . Chroma 72, 913–921 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1365/s10337-010-1738-z

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