Extraction of organic compounds from airborne particulate matter

The extraction of organic compounds from airborne particulate matter, obtained by glass fiber filtration, has been studied with different solvents and has been followed as a function of time. For many compounds, almost quantitative extraction was obtained after S h. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons and polar compounds often yielded higher extraction efficiencies with methanol than with benzene. The gas chromatographic mass spectrometric determination of these compounds is somewhat simplified by a separation of the sample into neutral, acidic and basic fractions. The efficiency of this procedure was tested on a mixture of compounds representative for the actual aerosol composition. It was concluded that the basic fraction yielded poor results. The techniques for these measurements included quantitative gas chromatography with electronic integration for standard mixtures and quantitative mass chromatography for natural sample extracts.