Alternating trilinear decomposition of highly overlapped chromatograms for simultaneously targeted quantification of 15 PAHs in samples of pollution source

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are of worldwide environmental concern because of their properties of carcinogenicity, mutagenicity and teratogenicity. In the work, a smart combination of gel permeation chromatography-diode array detector and second-order calibration based on alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD-GPC-DAD) is proposed for simultaneous targeted identification and quantification of 15 PAHs in atmospheric pollution sources such as flue-dust and greasy-dirt samples. No need of tedious sample pretreatment and specific PAHs separation column, severely overlapped chromatograph peaks are successfully resolved by the ATLD-GPC-DAD method even with only 3 s of difference in retention times. Accurate quantitative results of 15 PAHs are achieved by using the developed method even in the presence of unexpected interferents. The limits of detection range from 0.94 ng mL −1 to 48.86 ng mL −1 , and the average recoveries are in the range of (81.2 ± 1.0)% to (108.9 ± 11.6)% for flue-dust samples and (89.7 ± 3.4)% to (107.5 ± 8.0)% for greasy-dirt samples. The sensitivity and selectivity of analytes is significantly improved with the aid of “mathematical separation” of the method. These results indicate that it opens a promising analytical strategy for control of PAHs emissions and management of urban air quality.