An assessment of the concentrations of particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the aftermath of a chemical store fire incident

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Abas, M. Radzi Bin | Omar, Nasr Yousef M. J. | Maah, M. Jamil

Affiliations: Department of Chemistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Note: [] Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: PM_{10} airborne particles and soot deposit collected after a fire incident at a chemical store were analyzed in order to determine the concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The samples were extracted with 1:1 hexane-dichloromethane by ultrasonic agitation. The extracts were then subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) analysis. The total PAHs concentrations in airborne particles and soot deposit were found to be 3.27 ± 1.55 ng/m^3 and 12.81 ± 24.37 μg/g, respectively. Based on the molecular distributions of PAHs and the interpretation of their diagnostic ratios such as PHEN/(PHEN + ANTH), FLT/(FLT + PYR) and BeP/(BeP + BaP), PAHs in both airborne particles and soot deposit may be inferred to be from the same source. The difference in the value of IP/(IP + BgP) for these samples indicated that benzo[g,h,i]perylene and coronene tend to be attached to finer particles and reside in the air for longer periods. Comparison between the molecular distributions of PAHs and their diagnostic ratios observed in the current study with those reported for urban atmospheric and roadside soil particles revealed that they are of different sources.

Keywords: airborne particles, soot deposit, PAHs

Journal: Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 751-754, 2004