DETERMINATION OF SOME SELECTED POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC-HYDROCARBONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL-SAMPLES BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH FLUORESCENCE DETECTION

Analytical methods for the determination in environmental samples, of some selected Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH's), which are incl uded on the EPA Priority Pollutant list, have been developed and evalu ated. The methodology involves the extraction of PAH's from water samp les by solvent extraction with dichloromethane. Solid samples were ult rasonically extracted with acetone/hexane and the extract was cleaned up on a silica gel/alumina column. The concentrated and cleaned up ext racts were analysed by HPLC on a polymeric C18 column using a gradient of acetonitrile/water as the mobile phase and fluorescence detection. Typical detection limits lie in the range of 1-30 ng ml-1 of the anal ytes, but after sample pretreatment detection limits of 10-300 ng l-1 were obtained. The extraction, clean-up and HPLC methodology was appli ed to the determination of selected PAH's in coal washings samples and the method was validated by the quantification of PAH's in a natural contaminated and a spiked sediment.