Capillary gas chromatographic analysis of nitrogen dioxide and PANs with luminol chemiluminescent detection

Peroxyacyl nitrates (PANs) and nitrogen dioxide are important atmospheric air pollutants in the troposphere. These atmospheric nitrogen species are strongly coupled chemically by a clearly temperature-dependent equilibrium in the troposphere. A chemical method that can measure both nitrogen dioxide and PANs rapidly and with sub-part-per-billion detection is described that is based upon a modified luminol detection system coupled to a capillary gas chromatographic column by using helium as a carrier. The system can readily separate and detect nitrogen dioxide, peroxyacetyl nitrate, peroxyproprionyl nitrate, and peroxybutyrl nitrate with detection limits in the low tens of parts per trillion with total analysis time of less than 1 min. Calibration of PAN by thermal decomposition to nitrogen dioxide is demonstrated with PAN detection sensitivities approximately 75% of the sensitivities observed for NO2 luminol detection by using helium as a carrier gas. The advantages of this method for simultaneous measurement of nitrogen dioxide and PANs over ozone chemiluminescent detection and electron capture detection are discussed, as well as potential applications of this method for heterogeneous surface chemistry studies of PANS and nitrogen dioxide and for tropospheric measurements. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.