Toxicological evaluation of gasolines by GC-MS analysis

Summary

The present directives of European Community have mandated the elimination of Tetraethyl Lead (TEL) as an antiknock additive in motor gasoline to prevent environmental pollution and protect human health. Moreover the European Community has established new guidelines for the Benzene and Aromatic contents of gasoline. These directives have focused the attention on the analytical problems related to the determination of specific compounds of environmental interest in a hydrocarbon matrix.

In the present work two analytical methods are proposed; they are based on a gas chromatographic technique with mass spectrometry detection in selected ions monitoring (GC-MS-SIM) mode. The first one has been used for the volatile compounds (split mode) and the second one for higher boiling compounds (splitless mode).

This technique, because of its selectivity, does not require sample pre-treatment other than the addition of an internal standard. The analysis of a 5–10 mL gasoline sample can be performed in less than 40 minutes. These methods can be considered as accurate tools to evaluate the compounds of toxicological interest in gasoline samples. The analyses were carried out to measure TEL, 1,2-dibromoethane, benzene, aromatic, naphthalene and phenanthrene in samples of different grade of motor gasoline, aviation gasoline and unleaded gasoline.

The sensitivity and reproducibility are compared with other analytical methods as AAS and GC-ECD.