Journal of Shanghai University(Natural Science Edition) ›› 2017, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (3): 473-482.doi: 10.12066/j.issn.1007-2861.1920

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Distribution characteristics of polychlorinated biphenyls in size-specific dust from air conditioner filters

XIA Xiaoyang1, SHUI Yong2, HUANG Ningbao1, ZHANG Xiaolan1, YU Yingxin1   

  1. 1. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China;
    2. Water Environment Monitoring Center,Hydrographic Survey Bureau of Tibet Autonomous Region, Lhasa 850000, China
  • Received:2017-01-05 Online:2017-06-30 Published:2017-06-30

Abstract:

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of typical persistent organic pollutants. They are still detectable in the environmental though prohibited in the past
50 years. Indoor dust is an important source of human exposure to PCBs. Dust settled or adsorbed on air conditioner filters causes indoor particles, reflecting contamination of the indoor environment to some extent. In the present study, PCBs in dust of different sizes were collected from air conditioner filters in dining rooms and laboratories. The results show that the total amount of PCBs ranges from 6.73 to 23.90 ng/g dw. The PCB level in dining room dust is higher than that in laboratories. Compared with other regions worldwide, the present results are relatively low. Industrial products Aroclor1016, Aroclor1232, or Aroclor1242 may be main sources of PCBs because low chlorinated compounds dominate the totals. In addition, it has been found that significant correlation exists between the concentrations of PCBs and dust properties including particle sizes and organic contents. However, PCB concentrations are negatively correlated with surface area, total pore volume, average pore size, ratio of nitrogen to carbon (N/C), and ratio of hydrogen to carbon(H/C) in the dust. The results indicate that the dust properties have great influence on the concentrations of PCBs.

Key words: distribution characteristic, particle size, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), air conditioner dust