Identification of various urinary metabolites of fluorene using derivatization solid-phase microextraction

A method for the qualitative analysis of various metabolites of fluorene is presented. The method uses solid-phase microextraction with an 85 μm polyacrylate fiber for extraction, headspace silylation with BSTFA and MTBSTFA without any catalyst for on-fiber derivatization and GC–MS in the selected ion monitoring mode for separation and detection. The suitability of the method for profile analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites is shown by analyzing an urine of an occupationally exposed person after enzymatic cleavage of the excreted conjugates. Satisfactory separation of all investigated metabolites was achieved without interferences due to matrix peaks.