A really quick easy cheap effective rugged and safe (QuEChERS) extraction procedure for the analysis of particle-bound PAHs in ambient air and emission samples Original Research Article

A quick easy cheap effective rugged and safe (QuEChERS) like extraction procedure is presented for the measurement of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) associated to particulate matter from ambient air or combustion process. The procedure is based on a short mechanical agitation (vortex during 90 s) using a small volume of acetonitrile (7 ml) as extraction solvent. Equivalent extraction efficiencies were obtained when comparing the QuEChERS and the traditional pressurized solvent extraction (ASE) procedures for ambient air and emission (wood combustion) filter samples. The developed QuEChERS extraction protocol was validated with the analysis of a standard reference material (NIST SRM 1649a, urban dust). By comparison to other extraction methods including ASE, the simplicity of the QuEChERS protocol allows to minimize experimental errors, to decrease about a factor 5 the cost per extraction and to increase the productivity per working day by a 10-fold factor. This paper constitutes the first report on the applicability of a QuEChERS-like approach for the quantification of PAHs or other organic compounds in atmospheric particulate matter.