Pressurized liquid extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from silicone rubber passive samplers

• A method was optimized for extracting PAHs from silicone rubber passive samplers.
• Pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) with gel permeation chromatography was used.
• Selective PLE with Florisil removed silicone oligomers but not sufficiently.
• Recoveries of spiked PAHs ranged from 81% to 102%, with a mean of 93%.
• The method saves considerable solvent and time compared to conventional methods.

Silicone rubber passive samplers effectively concentrate organic contaminants from water and are simple-to-use and robust. However, during the extraction of analytes from the samplers with organic solvents, oligomers associated with the rubber are inevitably extracted and this creates analytic challenges. Additionally, extraction methods that use Soxhlet or shaking are time-consuming and use large volumes of solvent. We evaluated a new method for the extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from silicone rubber passive samplers that uses pressurized liquid extraction with gel permeation chromatography. Extraction with dichloromethane at 100 °C provided better recoveries compared to that of 50 °C. The recoveries of 14 individual PAHs ranged from 81% to 102% and the mean recovery was 93% (standard deviation = 7). Relative to comparable methods in which Soxhlet or shaking were used for the extraction, this method uses considerably less solvent and time.