Method Development for Selective and Nontargeted Identification of Nitro Compounds in Diesel Particulate Matter

ORCID Identifiers

0000-0002-1476-0962

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Energy and Fuels

Publication Date

11-16-2017

Abstract

© 2017 American Chemical Society. Nitro-aromatic compounds are associated with a host of adverse human health and ecological outcomes; however, current methods of detection are limited by the lack of accuracy for the nontargeted identification of nitro compounds. This paper describes the development of a novel, accurate, and selective method of identifying nitro compounds, especially nitro polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in complex soot mixtures. For the first time, high-performance liquid chromatography was used in combination with Orbitrap mass spectrometry for the nontargeted identification of nitro compounds. This method was validated on a mixture of 84 standard molecules containing 23 nitro compounds and then applied to a complex soot sample, the National Institute of Standards and Technology standard reference material (SRM) 1650a, to successfully identify 105 masses, 62% of which were monosubstituted nitro compounds. All nitro compounds reported in the latest certificate of analysis (COA) for SRM 1650b were successfully identified except for 1,3-dinitropyrene and 1,6-dinitropyrene. Compounds not reported in the COA of the SRM 1650b, including but not limited to 1,8-dinitropyrene, alkylated nitro-molecules of all masses in the COA of SRM 1650b, nitro-phenylnaphthalene isomers, dinitronaphthalene, nitro-phenols, nitro-keto-PAHs, nitro-carboxylic-PAHs, and other nitro partial polar compounds, were also tentatively identified. Future work will consider a larger set of classes, including isomers. This will help identify the chemical composition of mixtures in order to take proactive approaches to prevent health and environmental hazards.

ISSN

0887-0624

Publisher

American Chemical Society

Volume

31

Issue

11

First Page

11615

Last Page

11626

Disciplines

Life Sciences

Keywords

Aromatic compounds, Aromatic hydrocarbons, Chemical hazards, Chromatography, Health hazards, High performance liquid chromatography, Isomers, Liquid chromatography, Mass spectrometry, Mixtures, Molecules, Soot, Certificate of analysis, Chemical compositions, Diesel particulate matters, Environmental hazards, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Nitro aromatic compounds, Nitropolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Orbitrap mass spectrometries, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Scopus ID

85034568605

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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