Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in diesel exhaust particulate matter and diesel fuel oil.

Clean-up procedures were developed for a method for determining the amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in diesel exhaust particulate matter and in diesel fuel oils using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). They were based mainly on the elimination of insoluble matter and aliphatic compounds that affect the performance of HPLC, from the dichloromethane extracts of particulate matter or from oils, with the aid of a disposable preparation column containing reversed-phase packings (Sep-Pak C18). Using these procedures, it is possible to detect 1 ng of benzo(a)pyrene in 30 mg of particulate matter with more than a 97% recovery or 0.5 ng in 50 microliters of oil with 91% recovery. Examples of analyses are given for particulate matter emitted from a diesel test engine and for diesel fuel oils, such as gas oil, residual oil and coal-liquefied oil.