Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Measurement Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Pahs) On Indoor Materials: Method Development, Aurélie Laguerre, Elliott T. Gall

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wildfire smoke penetrates indoors, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in smoke may accumulate on indoor materials. We developed two approaches for measuring PAHs on common indoor materials: (1) solvent-soaked wiping of solid materials (glass and drywall) and (2) direct extraction of porous/fleecy materials (mechanical air filter media and cotton sheets). Samples are extracted by sonication in dichloromethane and analyzed with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Extraction recoveries range from 50–83% for surrogate standards and for PAHs recovered from direct application to isopropanol-soaked wipes, in line with prior studies. We evaluate our methods with a total recovery metric, defined as the sampling and …