Application of SPME in the Analysis of Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Water by HPLC with DAD Detection

Determination of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons is very important in many laboratories of water quality control. The new Council Directive 98/78/EC states that water intended for human consumption shall be monitored on these parameters and meet the parametric values set out in Annex I (less than 0,10 μg/L for the sum of the concentrations of the specified compounds). The usual methodology of such analysis is based on liquid-liquid extraction followed by evaporation/concentration and clean-up steps. The coupling of Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME), a recent sample preparation technique to HPLC and fluorescence or diode-array detection (DAD) is extremely favourable for these compounds, with the aim to reduce the solvent usage and to simplify the procedure. This technique has been applied to the analysis of the following PAHs: fluoranthene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[ghi]perylene and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene in model aqueous solutions. In this study we describe the optimisation of SPME-HPLC in the analysis of these compounds. The results obtained suggest that this method can be an alternative to the other sample preparation methods already used in this field.