Dioxin determination on air filter samples

Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) are persistent organic pollutants (POPs) reported on the Stockholm Convention black list. Dioxins and furans are unwanted by-products of combustion released from chemical manufacturers and incinerators, introduced to the environment through the air emissions.

1. Introduction

To analyze dioxins intensive pretreatment methods are required, including extraction, purification and condensation prior to analysis by GC/MS. Although Soxhlet extraction is used in the regulated methods, it takes more than 16 hours and it becomes the “bottleneck” procedure. Since pressurized solvent extraction (PSE) is expected to shorten the extraction time, it was investigated whether PSE is feasible for dioxin analysis in air.

2. Experimental

Equipment: SpeedExtractor E-914, glassware for Soxhlet extraction Samples: Quartz fiber filter paper (QFF) and Polyurethane foam (PUF) Sampling: The filters were placed in a high volume air sampler for 3 days, (HV-700, Sibata, Tokyo, Japan) on the roof of Osaka City Institute of Public Health and Environmental Science in June 2012, with a flow rate of 700 L/min. The filters were placed into the extraction cells as shown in Fig 1.

Fig 1: PUF sample loaded into extraction cell [1]

The extraction was carried out with the SpeedExtractor E-914. The method parameters are shown in Table 1. Table 1: Extraction parameters for dioxin and furan determination using PSE

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