Rapid simultaneous analysis of 1-hydroxypyrene, 2-hydroxyfluorene, 9-hydroxyphenanthrene, 1- and 2-naphthol in urine by first derivative synchronous fluorescence spectrometry using Tween-20 as a sensitizer

A novel method of first derivative synchronous fluorescence was developed for the rapid simultaneous analysis of trace 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP), 1-naphthol (1-NAP), 2-naphthol (2-NAP), 9-hydroxyphenanthrene (9-OHPe) and 2-hydroxyfluorene (2-OHFlu) in human urine. Only one single scan was needed for quantitative determination of five compounds simultaneously when Δλ = 10 nm was chosen. In the optimal experimental conditions, there was a linear relationship between the fluorescence intensity and the concentration of 1-OHP, 1-NAP, 2-NAP, 9-OHPe and 2-OHFlu in the range of 1.75 × 10−9 to 4.50 × 10−6 mol L−1, 3.64 × 10−8 to 2.20 × 10−4 mol L−1, 8.18 × 10−9 to 1.20 × 10−4 mol L−1, 3.26 × 10−9 to 8.50 × 10−5 mol L−1 and 4.88 × 10−9 to 5.50 × 10−6 mol L−1, respectively. The limits of detection (LOD) were found to be 5.25 × 10−10 mol L−1 for 1-OHP, 1.10 × 10−8 mol L−1 for 1-NAP, 2.46 × 10−9 mol L−1 for 2-NAP, 9.77 × 10−10 mol L−1 for 9-OHPe and 1.46 × 10−9 mol L−1 for 2-OHFlu. The proposed method is reliable, selective and sensitive, and has been used successfully in the determination of traces of 1-OHP, 1-NAP, 2-NAP, 9-OHPe and 2-OHFlu in human urine samples, whose results were in good agreement with those gained by the HPLC method.