Potential Application of Synchronous Fluorescence Spectroscopy to Identification of PAHs in Airborne PM2.5

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Physics, Amity Institute of Applied Sciences, Amity University, Sector 125, Noida - 201 313, India

2 Tezpur University, Tezpur - 784028, Assam, India

3 Department of Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi - 110025, India

Abstract

A simple and rapid method for the highly sensitive determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in an urban environment of Delhi was developed. The target compounds were 10 of the 16 United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) priority PAHs: fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene, benzo(a)anthracene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo[a]pyrene, dibenzo(ah)anthracene, benzo(ghi)perylene, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene. For collecting the samples, the following two locations in Delhi (India) were chosen: ITO and Okhla Industrial Area.  Two sets of samples at these locations of were collected for the purpose of investigation. The fine particulate matter samples were collected on glass fiber filter papers for 24h, from which the PAHs were extracted using dichloromethane (DCM) and hexane using ultrasonication method. Comparison of the characteristic emission of spectra of PAHs with standard spectra indicated the degree of condensation of aromatic compounds present in the investigated mixtures. However, this identification could be more effective with the use of the respective values of Δλ parameter for each particular component of the mixture. It has been found that the concentration of the PAHs is maximum during the winter season and minimum during the summer and monsoon seasons at both the locations. 

Keywords

References

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Pollution
Volume 8, Issue 2
April 2022
Pages 637-656

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