Ho Chi Minh City is an extremely crowded urban area with poor air quality for decades. Due to a huge amount of motorcycles flowing on the street daily, organic pollutants from vehicles exhaustion becomes an important pollution source. A monitoring station was set in Ho Chi Minh City University of Science campus, near a busy 6-way intersection, provided a roll comprised of 300 PM2.5 samples. In this study, thermal desorption coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (TD-GC/MS) was used to analyze polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This method using high temperature to extract PAHs from the matrix requires no pretreatment step, which means less consuming time, effort and solvent. 12 priority PAHs were investigated with the MLOD of 0.016-0.352 ng/tube. During rainy season (May-Oct), 3- and 4-ring PAHs including phenanthrene and anthracene, benzo(f)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene and benzo(a)pyrene concentrations were range between 0.1-1.2 ng/m3; while 5- and 6-ring PAHs including indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, dibenz(a,h)anthracene and benzo(g,h,i)perylene concentrations were within 0.1-1.5 ng/m3. On the other hand, during the dry season (Nov-Jun), 3- and 4-ring PAHs concentrations were range from &lt;LOD-13 ng/m3; while 5- and 6-ring PAHs concentrations were within &lt;LOD-3 ng/m3. Optimization of TD-GC/MS condition for analyzing of PM2.5-bound PAHs on filters was presented. The diurnal variation and distribution profile of PAHs in PM2.5 within one year in Ho Chi Minh City have displayed as well as their toxicity.

Diurnal variation of PM2.5-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam during 2013-2014 using TD-GC/MS

2019 Spring National Meeting

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