Gas Chromatographic Detection of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Indoor Air After Direct Extraction by a Novel Monolithic Adsorbent

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been listed among the hazardous compounds according to the US environmental protection agency (USEPA) and the world health organization (WHO). Even low concentrations of PAHs have shown serious toxicity, highlighting the necessity of the measurement of these compounds which require highly sensitive and precise methods. In this study, for the first time, a solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber was fabricated by a highly porous monolithic nanofiber nanocomposite based on polyethersulfone (PES)/multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and used for direct sampling of indoor air before identification of polycyclic aromatic compounds by gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID). A new homemade sampling chamber was also designed to increase the exposure of airborne PAHs to the proposed SPME fiber. The microextraction conditions were optimized. The correlation coefficients and the linear range (LDR) of the compounds ranged from 0.9991 to 0.9996 and from 0.02 to 10 mg/m3, respectively. In addition, the limit of detection (LOD) varied in the range of 0.014-0.032 mg/m3. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for single fiber and fiber to fiber was 2.95 and 5.95%, respectively. This method was successfully applied to measure some PAHs in indoor spaces.