Resolution of benzo[a]pyrene in complex mixtures of other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Comparison of two spectrofluorimetric methods applied to water samples

Two spectrofluorimetric methods, second-derivative constant-energy synchron ous luminescence (SDCESL) and constant-wavelength synchronous luminescence (CWSL) in combination with multiple linear regression (MLR), for the quanti fication of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) at sub-ng mL(-1) levels, in the presence o f benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbFt), benzo[k]fluoranthene (BkFt), benzo[ghi]peryl ene (BghiP) and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene (IP), were developed and compared in detail. SDCESL presents lower limits of detection and quantification than CWSL/MLR and also gives more exact and precise results for levels close to the quantification limit. For BaP, SDCESL achieved quantification limits of 0.019 ng mL(-1) in river waters and 0.007 ng mL(-1) in drinking waters. Th is work offers a sensitive, precise, accurate, rapid, simple and economic m ethodology for monitoring BaP in waters for public consumption, meeting all the requirements of the EC Directive 98/83/CE that fixes the maximum admis sible limit for this polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in drinking waters at of 0.010 ng mL(-1).