Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water by solid-phase microextraction–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

• Published in: Analytica chimica acta 2004-10, Vol.523 (2), p.259-267
• Main Authors: King, A.J., Readman, J.W., Zhou, J.L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analytical chemistry; Brackish; Chemistry; Chromatographic methods and physical methods associated with chromatography; Exact sciences and technology; Gas chromatographic methods; Mersey Estuary; PAHs; Porewater; Speciation; Spectrometric and optical methods; SPME
• ISSN: 0003-2670; 1873-4324
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2004.07.050

A solid-phase microextraction (SPME)–gas chromatography (GC)–mass spectrometry (MS) analytical method for the simultaneous separation and determination of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from aqueous samples has been developed, based on the sorption of target analytes on a selectively sorptive fibre and subsequent desorption of analytes directly into GC–MS. The influence of various parameters on PAH extraction efficiency by SPME was thoroughly studied. Results show that the fibre exposure time and the use of agitation during exposure are critical in enhancing SPME performance. The presence of colloidal organic matter (as simulated by humic acid) in water samples is shown to significantly reduce the extraction efficiency, suggesting that SPME primarily extracts the truly dissolved compounds. This offers the significant advantage of allowing the differentiation between freely available dissolved compounds and those associated with humic material and potentially biologically unavailable. The method showed good linearity up to 10 μg/l. The reproducibility of the measurements expressed as relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) was generally