Analysis of ozonolysis products of benzo[a]pyrene with capillary gas chromatography mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry

Various chromatographic techniques coupled with mass spectrometry were used for the analysis of polar products after ozonolysis of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), including CGC-HRMS, thermospray-LC-MS and APCI-LC-MS. The simulation of atmospheric degradation of benzo[a]pyrene by ozone was carried out on glass fiber filters and BaP-coated soot. The drawback of GC/MS is the low sensitivity for these analytes, the advantages are the higher separation performance and the possibility of electron impact (EI) spectra. In comparison, APCI-LC-MS is by far more sensitive with detection limits in the absolute picogram range, despite the lack of structural information. No qualitative difference between the ozonolysis products of BaP deposited on glass fiber filters or soot surfaces was observed. Reaction products consist mainly of quinones and carboxylic acids. A number of compounds cannot be identified yet and require further investigation. With the APCI-LC-MS, the formation of BaP degradation products was confirmed on real samples of air particulate matter.