Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in waste water by off-line coupling of solid-phase microextraction with column liquid chromatography

A new method for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in waste water using solvent-free solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is described. The PAHs are extracted with a 100 μm polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fiber, desorbed in 40 μl acetonitrile and measured with LC and fluorescence detection. The detection limits of this very simple method under the given conditions (extraction from 5 ml sample, extraction time 1 h) are in the range of 1–6 ng l−1. The standard deviations (n=6) at a concentration level of 0.8 μg l−1 are between 1.8 and 14.4%. The procedure was used for the determination of PAHs in contaminated water samples.