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Abstract
An ultra-high-volume liquid electrostatic aerosol precipitator (LEAP) sampler was used to collect airborne particles from New York City air. In the sampling process, air was drawn into an electric field, where the airborne particles were charged and deposited onto a thin film of moving liquid. The collected samples were analyzed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) by gas chromatography (GC) and GC/mass spectrometry (MS). For comparison, a conventional high-volume air sampler with a glass fiber filter was placed alongside the LEAP to simultaneously collect an additonal concurrent aerosol sample. The PAH concentrations found in the particles collected by both methods were in general agreement. However, the higher flow rates of the LEAP make it a much superior sampler for short-time sampling, which is mandatory for time resolution studies. Additionally, since the LEAP collects only particles without the filter-associated artifacts, simultaneous collection of total analytes with a filter-adsorbent sampler for comparison can reveal partitioning behaviors of analytes between gas and particle phases.