Aromatic hydrocarbons in airborne particulate matter collected in an industrial-urban region—qualitative analysis by GC-MS method

The GC-MS method was used for analysis of aromatic fraction components of organic pollutants isolated from airborne dust from industrial-urban region (Upper Silesia, Poland). The results of investigations have confirmed that composition of the analyzed pollutants in summer time were dominated by products of combustion of engine fuels. A series of two to five ring condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), typical for this kind of pollution, was identified. Among the identified unsubstituted PAHs, fluoranthene and pyrene predominate being accompanied by other PAHs such as phenanthrene, cyclopenta(c)pyrene, benzo(c)- phenanthrene, benzo(a)anthracene, chrysene, triphenylene, benzofloranthenes, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(e)pyrene, perylene, anthanthrene, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene, dibenzopyrenes, coronene. The presence of these compounds and their relative concentrations have shown a distinct similarity with the results of obtained by other authors in studies on airborne dust from a different locality of the Upper Silesia. Concentrations of alkylsubstituted PAHs were found to be much lower than those of unsubstituded PAHs. This may indicate that the analyzed pollutions originate mainly during high-temperature pyrolytic processes or also partially secondary processes of oxidation and photolysis under conditions of summer light. It is a very important environmental problem because the secondary processes can result in distinct simultaneous changes of the bioactivity of organic air pollutions. Pyrene as well as fluoranthene dominate among unsubstituted PAHs in analyzed air pollutants. Thanks to this domination and high luminescence yield, pyrene, as well as its alkyl derivatives, were marked especially distinctly in the luminescence spectra, recorded here in a comparative analysis. GC-MS method made it also possible to identify low-polar heterocompounds containing oxygen and sulphur atoms. Among them, several groups of aromatic ether oxygen compounds (such as of the furane, xantene and chromene types) as well as a quinonic compound (antraquinone) were identified. These compounds may originate already during combustion process or in secondary processes in the air abound in oxidants of various type. In studies of complicated phenomena and numerous factors conditioning PAHs composition in air pollution it is necessary to use a great number of various analytical methods and techniques. The most effective seems to be a group of chromatographic methods, mainly capillary GC-MS one. The luminescence method, especially the synchronous technique, is also used here. The latter is, in turn, an effective method for a comparative characteristics of aromatic environmental pollutions