High-performance, liquid-chromatographic method for the analysis of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in water

High-performance liquid chromatography provides a rapid and sensitive means for determining polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in water samples. A high-performance liquid chromatograph, coupled with ultraviolet or fluorescence detectors has greater selectivity for analysis than methods using gas-chromatographic and flame-ionization systems.

Several natural water samples were fortified with mixtures of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons containing naphthalene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthrene, pyrene, chrysene, 1,2-benzanthracene, benzo(a)pyrene, 1,2:5,6-dibenzanthracene, and benzo(g,h,i)perylene. Resulting solutions, with concentrations of individual polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons ranging from 0.05 to 11.0 micrograms per liter, were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography to investigate limits of method applicability and to acquire necessary precision data.

The polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons considered in this study were detected in the micrograms per liter range and were found to have a total chromatographic elution time of approximately 35 minutes. Successive determinations of standard mixtures, followed by statistical analysis of the data, showed an average mean recovery of 83.1 percent, an average standard deviation of ± 0.130 microgram per liter, and an average relative standard deviation of 7.45 percent.