Proportions of volatile hazardous hydrocarbons in vehicle-polluted urban air

Journal article, 1992

Hydrocarbons of particular toxicological interest were determined in Scandinavian urban air as their fraction of total hydrocarbons except methane. Samples were taken on triple-layer adsorbent cartridges and the C2-C8 hydrocarbons were analyzed by gas chromatography on an Al2O3/KCl column. The approximate ratios 10:4:1 were observed for ethene, propene and butadiene. The proportion of these combustion-derived alkenes was low for cold starts, and highest for fast traffic.