Comparison of Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detection and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry for the Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Environmental Samples

Liquid chromatography (LC) with fluorescence detection and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) have been compared for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a variety of environmental samples. Three sets of data are presented in this paper in which LC/fluorescence and GC/MS were used for the analysis of the same samples. These three data sets include the comparison of results from: (1) certification measurements for three natural matrix Standard Reference Materials (SRM's), (2) an international round robin for the determination of PAHs in air and diesel particulate samples, and (3) the analysis of four marine sediment reference materials. The results from these studies indicate that the two techniques generally provide comparable results for the measurement of PAHs in environmental samples (in the range of 0.1 to 300 ng/g), with differences in the two techniques between 5–20%. However, at low levels, anthracene and perylene are best measured using LC/fluorescence because of their selective and sensitive fluorescence detection characteristics. In contrast, GC/MS provides more accurate results for the determination of benzoghi]perylene because of its low fluorescence sensitivity.