Solid Phase Extraction for Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Atmospheric Wet and Dry Deposition Samples

Abstract

Solid phase extraction with C-18 sorbent tubes was employed for extraction and preconcentration of trace level (ng/l) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from water samples obtained by collecting wet and dry atmospheric deposition. Recoveries of spiked PAHs from 0.2 to 10.0 l water samples ranged from 60% to 90%. Five deuterated PAHs (naphthalene- d 8 , acenaphthene- d 10 , anthracene- d 10 , chrysene- d 12 , and perylene- d 12 ) were added to the samples as surrogates. The recoveries of surrogates were in the same range as the spiked PAHs. The recoveries of surrogates were used to estimate the recoveries of ambient PAHs with a similar ring structure. Factors that contributed to the relatively low recoveries include breakthrough of the sorbates, adsorption on the container surface, and degradation in water during storage.