Stable carbon isotopic ratio measurement of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as a tool for source identification and apportionment— A review of analytical methodologies

Analysing the ratio of stable isotopes of carbon (13C/12C expressed as a δ13C) in the individual components of a sample may be used as one of the means to identify the origin of these components. This article reviews the approaches and reports on the successes and failures of source apportionment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) with the use of compound specific isotope analysis (CSIA). One of the conditions for a precise and accurate analysis of isotope ratios with the use of GC-C-IRMS is obtaining well separated peaks, with no co-elutions, peak overlap and unresolved complex mixture (UCM). Additionally special care needs to be taken for an investigation of possible isotope fractionation effects introduced during the analytical treatment of samples. In the viewpoint of the above mentioned problems, this review discusses in detail and compares the laboratory methodologies, mainly the extraction and subsequent clean-up techniques used for environmental samples (aerosols, soil and sediments). Moreover, the strategies used for sampling of sources, the use of isotopic internal standards and the ranges for precision and accuracy are reported.JRC.D.3-Knowledge Transfer and Standards for Securit