Questions
Why are large PAHs important?
Answer: It was long thought that the
large PAHs were either not found in samples or of little biological impact. With work done in the past decade, both have been
shown to be false. Large PAHs are ubiquitous, but were not found before because they were not looked for or the methods used
were optimized for the small PAHs.
What are the differences in the analysis
of larger PAHs that require other approaches than for the smaller ones?
Answer: As the number of ring carbon
number goes up, the number of isomers goes up exponentially. The relative difference between isomers also gets proportionally
smaller. Separating and identifying specific PAHs gets more difficult.
