Headspace single drop microextraction combined with HPLC for the determination of trace polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environmental samples

A new method by combining headspace single drop microextraction (HS-SDME) with HPLC fluorescence detection for the determination of trace polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environmental samples was developed. Aqueous solution of saturated β-cyclodextrin was used as extraction solvent and five PAHs were employed as target analytes. The factors affecting the extraction efficiency were studied in detail and the optimal extraction conditions were established. β-cyclodextrin was found to play two important roles, one is the improvement of extraction efficiency of target analytes and the other is the enhancement of their fluorescence intensities in HPLC fluorescence detection. The detection limits for the target analytes were found to be in the range of 0.004–0.247 ng/ml and the relative standard deviations (R.S.D.s) of 5.1–7.1% were obtained. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of trace PAHs in environmental samples with satisfactory results.