Simultaneous Determination of Seven Metabolites of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Human Urine by Online Solid Phase Extraction-High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

Abstract A high performance liquid chromatographic method for simultaneous determination of seven metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including 1-hydroxynaphthalene, 2-hydroxynaphthalene, 2-hydroxyfluorene, 2-hydroxyphenanthrene, 4-hydroxyphenanthrene, 1-hydroxypyrene and 6-hydroxychrysene in human urine, was developed coupled with online solid phase extraction by use of a double ternary liquid chromatography system with a fluorescence detector. The target compounds were online concentrated on the Turboflow Cyclone solid phase extraction column, and then transferred by a six-way valve to the Hypersil Green PAH column for separation with acetonitrile and water as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min−1 and 35 °C. The analysis was completed in 20 min. Under the optimized chromatographic conditions, the method showed good linearity (r ≥ 0.999) in the range of 5−2000 ng L−1 or 50−20000 ng L−1 with the LODs of 0.5−15 ng L−1 and the recoveries of 80.7%−110.7%. The proposed method was successfully applied to the detection of metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urine from several smokers and non-smokers. The concentrations of 2-hydroxynaphthalene, 1-hydroxynaphthalene, 2-hydroxyfluorene, 2-hydroxyphenanthrene, 4-hydroxyphenanthrene and 6-hydroxychrysene in the smoker urine were much higher than those in non-smoker.