Monofluorinated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as internal standards to monitor trace enrichment and desorption of their parent compounds during solid-phase extraction

Solid-phase extraction (SPE) is an established sample-preparation technique for clean-up procedures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The suitability of monofluorinated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (F-PAHs) as a novel set of internal standards, was tested for two widely used SPE sorbents, octyl-bonded silica and styrene–divinylbenzene copolymer. The elution profiles of eight F-PAHs and their parent PAHs, taken from the priority pollutant list of the US-Environmental Protection Agency, were compared for demineralized water and waste water. In both instances, the match of the elution profiles was exceptionally close. The eight F-PAHs and the corresponding PAHs were determined by reversed-phase liquid chromatography using acetonitrile–water gradient elution with UV detection at 254 nm. The UV spectra of the F-PAHs show a small bathochromic shift compared with the parent PAHs.