Application of alternating trilinear decomposition-assisted multivariate curve resolution to gas chromatography-mass spectrometric data for the quantification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in aerosols

For the first time, alternating trilinear decomposition-assisted multivariate curve resolution (ATLD-MCR) was applied to analyse complex gas chromatography-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) data with severe baseline drifts, serious co-elution peaks and slight retention time shifts for the simultaneous identification and quantification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in aerosols. It was also compared with the classic multivariate curve resolution-alternating least-squares (MCR-ALS) and the GC-MS-based external standard method. In validation samples, average recoveries of five PAHs were within the range from (96.2 +/- 6.8)% to (106.5 +/- 4.1)% for ATLD-MCR, near to the results of MCR-ALS ((98.0 +/- 1.5)% to (106.7 +/- 4.3)%). In aerosol samples, the concentrations of pyrene provided by ATLD-MCR were not significantly different from those of MCR-ALS. The other four PAHs including chrysene, benzo[a]anthracene, fluoranthene and benzo[b]fluoranthene were not detected by ATLD-MCR and the GC-MS-based external standard method. The results of figures of merit further demonstrated that ATLD-MCR achieved high sensitivities (8.9 x 10(4) to 1.7 x 10(6) mAU ml mu g(-1)) and low limits of detection (0.003 to 0.087 mu g ml(-1)), which were better than or similar to MCR-ALS, presenting a great choice to deal with complex GC-MS data for the simultaneous determination of targeted PAHs in aerosols.

Automated summary

The ATLD-MCR method was applied for the first time to analyze complex GC-MS data for simultaneous identification and quantification of PAHs in aerosols, demonstrating high sensitivity and low limits of detection. Compared with MCR-ALS and the GC-MS-based external standard method, ATLD-MCR accurately identified PAHs and achieved similar recovery rates.