Concentration and Determination of Trace Amounts of Several Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Aqueous Samples

Abstract

A preliminary method is proposed for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in drinking water samples, in which the PAHs are collected on a short column, then desorbed and separated in a single step using reversed phase liquid chromatography, and detected by their fluorescence. The extraction precolumn is packed with 40 μm C₁₈ bonded phase pellicular material, while the LC column uses C₁₈ bonded phase microparticulate packing. Test solutions contained 7H-benz[de]anthracene-7-one (benzanthrone), fluoranthene, perylene, benzo[a]pyrene, and benzo[ghi]-perylene. By exercising considerable care to avoid loss of these compounds due to adsorption on surfaces in the system, the authors were able to quantitatively recover them from solutions containing less than 10 ng/L each. The amount recovered was linear with sample volume through 400 mL. Fluorescence detection of the native fluorescence of these compounds permitted detection limits of the order of 100 pg. Thus, application of this extraction method to a 400 mL sample allowed detection of these PAHs at sample levels as low as 0.2 ng/L.