Gas chromatographic determination of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes using flame ionization detector in water samples with direct aqueous injection up to 250 μl

A simple method of solventless extraction of volatile organic compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) from aqueous samples was developed. This method allows direct injection of large volume of water sample into a gas chromatograph using the sorption capacity of the sorbent Chromosorb P NAW applied directly in the injection port of gas chromatograph. The system prevent water penetration into a column, keep it adsorbed on its surface until the analytes are stripped into a column, and the residual water is purging using split flow. The limit of detection ranging from 0.6 for benzene to 1.1 μg l−1 for o-xylene and limit of quantification ranging 2.0–3.6 μg l−1 are lower that those reached by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection and direct aqueous injection before.