Cigarette filter as sorbent for on-line coupling of solid-phase extraction to high-performance liquid chromatography for determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water

An on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) protocol using the cigarette filter as sorbent coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for simultaneous determination of trace naphthalene (NAPH), phenanthrene (PHEN), anthracene (ANT), fluoranthene (FLU), benzo(b)fluoranthene (BbF), benzo(k)fluoranthene (BkF), benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), and benzo(ghi)perylene (BghiP) in water samples. To on-line interface solid-phase extraction to HPLC, a preconcentration column packed with the cigarette filter was used to replace a conventional sample loop on the injector valve of the HPLC for on-line solid-phase extraction. The sample solution was loaded and the analytes were then preconcentrated onto the preconcentration column. The collected analytes were subsequently eluted with a mobile phase of methanol–water (95:5). HPLC with a photodiode array detector was used for their separation and detection. The detection limits (S/N = 3) for preconcentrating 42 mL of sample solution ranged from 0.9 to 58.6 ng L−1 at a sample throughput of 2 samples h−1. The enhancement factors were in the range of 409–1710. The developed method was applied to the determination of trace NAPH, PHEN, ANT, FLU, BbF, BkF, BaP and BghiP in local river water samples. The recoveries of PAHs spiked in real water samples ranged from 87 to 115%. The precisions for nine replicate measurements of a standard mixture (NAPH: 4.0 μg L−1, PHEN: 0.40 μg L−1, ANT: 0.40 μg L−1, FLU: 2.0 μg L−1, BbF: 1.6 μg L−1, BkF: 2.0 μg L−1, BaP: 2.0 μg L−1, BghiP: 1.7 μg L−1) were in the range of 1.2–5.1%.