TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Heyn, L. A1 - Jung, Christian T1 - Indoor exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: A comparison of stir bar sorptive extraction and pump sampling T2 - Engineering Reports N2 - Stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) was compared with standardized pump sampling regarding the prospects to assess airborne levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in indoor environments. A historic railway water tower, which will be preserved as a technical monument for museum purposes, was sampled with both approaches because the built-in insulationmaterial was suspected to release PAHs to the indoor air. The 16 PAHs on the US EPA list were quantified using gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection in filters from pump sampling after solvent extraction and on SBSE devices after thermal desorption. SBSEwas seen to sample detectable PAHmasseswith excellent repeatability and a congener pattern largely similar to that observed with pump sampling. Congener patterns were however significantly different from that in the PAH source because release from the insulation material is largely triggered by the respective congener vapor pressures. Absolute masses in the ng range sampled by SBSE corresponded to airborne concentrations in the ng L−1 range determined by pump sampling. Principle differences between SBSE and pump sampling as well as prospects of SBSE as cost-effective and versatile complement of pump sampling are discussed. PB - John Wiley & Sons Ltd. KW - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons KW - Adsorption KW - Extraction KW - Indoor air PY - 2021 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/53742 AN - OPUS4-53742 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-537427 VL - 3 IS - 12 SP - 1 EP - 10 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany