Determination of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface and groundwater in north Lebanon by using SPME followed by GC-ITMS/MS

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of a gas chromatography–ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (GC–ITMS/MS) coupled to solid phase micro-extraction for the quantitative determination of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water samples. In this study, the factors influencing the GC–ITMS/MS method were investigated and optimized, and then a calibrating program was developed for the quantification of the PAHs under study. The method showed linear calibration curves for the 16 studied PAHs in the range of 0.1–100 ng mL−1 with the correlation coefficient (r2) between 0.92 and 0.999. The precisions (relative standard deviation, RSD) were below 15% and recoveries were between 76 and 105%. The limits of detection and limits of quantification were in the low ng mL−1 level. Therefore, these limits correlated with the standard method 8270D set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The optimized method was then effectively applied for the analysis of the 16 PAHs in surface and groundwater samples collected from 30 locations along the Basin of Abou Ali River in Lebanon. So far, no or very low PAHs concentrations were found in groundwater sampling locations while considerable concentrations (ranging from 0 to 28.72 ng mL−1) were detected in surface water of some locations. Consequently, the method was demonstrated to be applicable for the analysis of PAHs in the sampled waters.