A multivariate study of the programmed temperature vaporization injection-gas chromatographic–mass spectrometric determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: Application to marine sediments analysis

The trace analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environmental matrices requires highly sensitive and selective methods. The use of large-volume injection in gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection allows the improvement of the sensitivity. In this work, one of the most popular large-volume injectors, programmed temperature vaporization (PTV)-splitless injection, was optimized to determine 26 alkylated and non-alkylated PAHs at ultratrace levels. The injection conditions that use two different injection volumes, 10 and 25 μl, were optimized applying experimental designs. Six experimental factors that could affect the vaporization efficiency were studied. Detection limits for each assayed volume were compared with splitless injection, both in full scan and in SIM mode. An improvement of 50- and 100-fold, for 10 and 25 μl, respectively, was achieved for PAHs in comparison with splitless injection. Finally, the method that was optimized for 25 μl was applied successfully to the analysis of a certified marine sediment SRM 1941b and a real marine sediment extracted by microwave assisted extraction.