Principal component analysis for soil contamination with PAHs

In order to understand the distribution pattern of individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds in soil samples collected from the sites affected by industrial activities to the more remote areas, principal component analysis and cluster analysis were performed. The score plots for the distribution pattern of individual PAH compounds differ quite considerably depending on the variations of total PAH concentration levels. The PAHs were found to be distributed in three groups mainly according to the number of rings in their structure for grossly contaminated areas. By contrast, in common contaminated areas the individual PAH compounds have been randomly spread.