Solid phase extraction with pyrenebutyric acid-bonded silica for analysis of polychlorinated biphenyls in sewage water by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

A solid phase extraction (SPE) method using pyrenebutyric acid-bonded silica (PYB) as sorbent was developed to determine 23 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sewage water by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Factors were optimized in SPE procedures including elution solvent, pH, and cartridge burden. The recoveries of 23 PCB congeners were 69.44–111.91% under optimized conditions. Comparisons were also conducted among PYB-SPE, C18-SPE and United States Environmental Protection Agency 608 (USEPA608) methods in the analysis of PCBs in sewage water samples. The results showed that the performance of PYB-SPE method was similar with USEPA608 method and better than C18-SPE method. Both PYB-SPE and USEPA608 methods were then employed to analyze PCBs in real spiked sewage water samples. The recoveries of PCB congeners determined by PYB-SPE method ranged from 70.6% to 92.4% in real spiked sewage water samples which were identified to be in accordance with USEPA608 method. Limits of detection (LOD) were in the range of 0.06–0.22 ng L−1 for PCB congeners. The optimized PYB-SPE method was successfully applied to the determination of PCBs in sewage water samples.