title: Determination of high-molecular weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in high performance liquid chromatography fractions of coal tar standard reference material 1597a via solid-phase nanoextraction and laser-excited time-resolved Shpol'skii spectroscopy.
abstract: This article presents an alternative approach for the analysis of high molecular weight - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (HMW-PAHs) with molecular mass 302 Da in complex environmental samples. This is not a trivial task due to the large number of molecular mass 302 Da isomers with very similar chromatographic elution times and similar, possibly even virtually identical, mass fragmentation patterns. The method presented here is based on 4.2K laser-excited time-resolved Shpol'skii spectroscopy, a high resolution spectroscopic technique with the appropriate selectivity for the unambiguous determination of PAHs with the same molecular mass. The potential of this approach is demonstrated here with the analysis of a coal tar standard reference material (SRM) 1597a. Liquid chromatography fractions were submitted to the spectroscopic analysis of five targeted isomers, namely dibenzo[a,l]pyrene, dibenzo[a,e]pyrene, dibenzo[a,i]pyrene, naphtho[2,3-a]pyrene and dibenzo[a,h]pyrene. Prior to analyte determination, the liquid chromatographic fractions were pre-concentrated with gold nanoparticles. Complete analysis was possible with microliters of chromatographic fractions and organic solvents. The limits of detection varied from 0.05 (dibenzo[a,l]pyrene) to 0.24 µg L(-1) (dibenzo[a,e]pyrene). The excellent analytical figures of merit associated to its non-destructive nature, which provides ample opportunity for further analysis with other instrumental methods, makes this approach an attractive alternative for the determination of PAH isomers in complex environmental samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Physical Sciences Room 255, Orlando, FL 32816-2366, United States.
authors.forename: Walter B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Physical Sciences Room 255, Orlando, FL 32816-2366, United States.
authors.forename: Bassam
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Alfarhani
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Physical Sciences Room 255, Orlando, FL 32816-2366, United States.
authors.forename: Anthony F T
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Physical Sciences Room 255, Orlando, FL 32816-2366, United States.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bisson
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Physical Sciences Room 255, Orlando, FL 32816-2366, United States.
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Wise
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Physical Sciences Room 255, Orlando, FL 32816-2366, United States. Electronic address: andres.campiglia@ucf.edu.
authors.forename: Andres D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Campiglia
keywords: Coal tar; Gold nanoparticles; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Shpol’skii spectroscopy; Solid-phase nanoextraction; Standard reference material 1597a