Ultra-high performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a passive environmental sampler

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous compounds released in the environment by different sources. The aim of the present work was to validate a solid-phase extraction (SPE) and a rapid ultra-high performance liquid chromatographic (UHPLC) method for the analysis of PAHs in a passive environmental sampler, namely a Dacron® (the commercial name of a synthetic fiber based on polyethylene terephthalate) textile. The elution temperature was optimized to improve the resolution of early-eluted compounds, namely acenaphthene (Ac) and fluorene (F). The UHPLC method lasts about 10 min and showed good linearity for all the 16 PAHs considered, with regression coefficients over 0.99. Recoveries, limits of detection (LODs), and limits of quantification (LOQs) of the SPE method were well within the performance criteria fixed by the Regulation n. 836/2011, namely 0.3 and 0.9 μg/kg, respectively.