Nonionic surfactant mixtures: a new cloud-point extraction approach for the determination of PAHs in seawater using HPLC with fluorimetric detection

This work proposes the use of nonionic surfactant mixtures (polyoxyethylene-10-lauryl ether "POLE" with Triton X-114 and Brij 30) in order to modify and control the cloud-point temperature required to extract and preconcentrate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from seawater samples. The optimized cloud-point method using the mixture POLE/Brij 30 followed by HPLC with fluorimetric detection allows to determine 13 PAHs from seawater (detection limits up to 23 ng/l and an average total RSD of 9.2%). The validation is achieved using a well-established extraction method and GC–MS.