A liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method for simultaneous analysis of 46 atmospheric particulate-phase persistent organic pollutants and comparison with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry,

A novel multi-analyte method for the simultaneous determination of 46 compounds of environmental concern, most of them belonging to the category of persistent organic pollutants, was developed using high-performance liquid chromatography and the results were compared to those obtained by gas chromatography. This study was performed in perspective of a cumulative exposure assessment of substances of health concern in environments where high levels, relatively to airborne particulate matter, can be found. The target compounds included polychlorinated biphenyls, brominated flame-retardants and derivatives of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The multi-analyte method was evaluated in air particulate matter in terms of reproducibility, linearity, recovery, limits of detection and quantification and matrix effect. The recovery was above 70% for all the analytes, whereas limits of quantification ranged between 23 and 390 pg.m(-3) in liquid chromatography and less than ten times in gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Matrix effect was generally negligible for both the techniques, except the case of the detection of oxygenated derivatives of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by gas chromatography.