Extraction and analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) by HPLC

Essentially, PAHs occur as a result of incomplete combustion of organic compounds as a result of pyrolytic processes and industrial and other human activities as a result of natural or human activities.Although there are hundreds of PAHs in nature, International authorities have recommended 16 of these compounds as carcinogenic and genotoxic substances, and Benzo[a]Pyrene has been accepted as an indicator of contaminating the environment or food. In this study, extraction and determination of PAHs in water and oils by HPLC-UV method was aimed. In water samples, possible PAHs are simply drawn into the dichloromethane solvent by liquid-liquid extraction. For oil samples, the oil sample is first dissolved with n-hexane and then taken into acetonitrile by liquid-liquid extraction. The determination of PAHs was performed by HPLC-UV method. The 16 PAHs selected in the study were separated from each other within a retention time of 15 minutes and sharp and narrow peaks were obtained for each PAH. the reproducibility of the method in terms of retention timesare less than 0.79 min SD and %6 RSD, in terms of peak areas are less than %2.5 RSD and accuracy varies between %0.47-6.10 relative error range. LOQ values of method were found between 1-2.5µg/L by studying of the standard solutions experimentally. After the optimization studies, the method was applied to real samples. The method was successfully applied to the water samples, but problems occurred in the identification of PAHs in the oil samples due to the co-extract.