Chemometrics-assisted excitation-emission fluorescence spectroscopy on nylon-attached rotating disks. Simultaneous determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the presence of interferences

Abstract

© 2014 Elsevier B.V. This work presents a green and very simple approach which enables the accurate and simultaneous determination of benzo[a]pyrene, dibenz[a,h]anthracene, benz[a]anthracene, and chrysene, concerned and potentially carcinogenic heavy-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in interfering samples. The compounds are extracted from water samples onto a device composed of a small rotating Teflon disk, with a nylon membrane attached to one of its surfaces. After extraction, the nylon membrane containing the concentrated analytes is separated from the Teflon disk, and fluorescence excitation-emission matrices are directly measured on the nylon surface, and processed by applying parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), without the necessity of a desorption step. Under optimum conditions and for a sample volume of 25mL, the PAHs extraction was carried out in 20min. Detection limits based on the IUPAC recommended criterion and relative errors of prediction were in the ranges 20-100n