Capillary column gas chromatography of environmental polycyclic aromatic compounds.

The methodologies are described for isolating clean fractions of polycyclic aromatic compounds from diverse environmental samples such as air particulate matter, sediments, and fish tissue. The common step in all procedures is the separation of the polycyclic aromatic compound fraction into well-defined chemical classes by adsorption chromatography on an alumina column. These procedures greatly facilitate the detailed characterization of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, sulfur heterocycles, and nitrogen heterocycles by capillary column gas chromatography.