Novel eco-friendly methodology to determine polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in polyurethane foam for air monitoring: Application to spatial and temporal distribution survey.

This study aimed at developing a new method for the extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in polyurethane foam (PUF). In the field of PAH monitoring, passive samplers using PUF disks are widely used. However, current extraction methods are time and solvent consuming. This new method employs 3 times a sixteenth of the PUF disk, with method detection limits (MDL) values below 5 and 13 ng/sampler for 3- and 4-rings PAHs, respectively. The use of only parts of the disk allows extraction by ultrasounds using exclusively 120 mL of ethanol, making it environmentally friendly. Ethanolic extracts are then purified and concentrated using microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS) before GC-MS analyses. This method was applied for an environmental survey in a French urban area with an oceanic climate. Variations in PAH concentrations were observed depending on the site studied (urban, traffic, periurban and rural), as well as temporal variations.