This study was carried out to investigate the influence of different sampling methods on the measured concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) both in the vapor and particulate phases, and to evaluate the effects of ambient temperature and sampling duration on the losses of PAH associated with particle samples due to volatilization. The experimental protocol of this study is consisted of two parts. The first part is related to the comparison of PAH concentrations measured by 4 different sampling systems, each of which involves different sampling principles for comparison purposes, including a medium-volume sampler with XAD-2 adsorbent, a high-volume sampler with polyurethane foam (PUF), two identical low-volume samplers: one with XAD-2 and the other with PUF, respectively. The second part of this study is to quantitatively estimate the losses of particulate PAH samples by volatilization during sampling, using two identical low-volume samplers: one was used for changing the filters every 3 hrs, 6 hrs, 12 hrs, and 24 hrs sampling, while the other was maintained for continuous 48 hours sampling without changing the filter. The concentrations of volatile PAH including 2-3 rings appeared to be significantly affected by the type of adsorbent. Measured levels of these lower-molecular weight PAH by XAD-2 adsorbent were much higher than those by PUF for both high-volume and low-volume sampling. PUF was found to give rise to unknown components that interfered with the PAH analysis, even after extensive clean-up. In addition, the retention efficiency of PUF for lower molecular weight PAH was subject to a large variation, being significantly influenced by sampling conditions such as ambient temperature. However, the effect of sampling methods with different adsorbents on the measured levels of semi-volatile compounds including 4 rings PAH such as fluoranthene, pyrene, BaA and chrysene, was not so much significant as more volatile PAH compounds. It was also clear from this study that volatilization losses of the semi-volatile PAH collected on the filters were inevitably occurred during prolonged sampling, and hence the results obtained from conventional sampling methods may not be expected to yield an accurate distribution of PAH between the vapor and particulate phases.