Quantitation and identification of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons by liquid chromatography and multiwavelength absorption spectrometry

This paper describes the combined use of liquid chromatographic separation with multiwavelength absorption detection for the quantitation and identification of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. Quantiative results are presented for three- and four-component mixtures with complete and partial separation. Qualitative data are presented for a twelve-component synthetic mixture and for extracts from a filter used to collect particulate emissions from a biomass-gasifier system. It is shown that multiwavelength data-processing methods commonly applied to absorption spectra can be applied with significant advantage to second-derivative spectra. Results indicate that significant improvements can be achieved by the use of different wavelength ranges for different components in mixtures. Detection limits for single-component samples varied between 3 and 11 μg l^?1 for eleven hydrocarbons and the scatter about calibration plots for mixtures was in the range of 0.05 to 0.4 μg ml^?1. The identities of all twelve components in the synthetic mixture were confirmed and nineteen components were identified in the sample from the biomass gasifier filter.