SEPARATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF NAPHTHALENE, ACENAPHTHYLENE, PYRENE, BENZ{A} ANTHRACENE AND 1,3,2,4-DIBENZANTHRACENE

Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) was coupled with ultraviolet absorption sepectoscopy (UV) for separation and identification of Naphthalene, Acenaphthylene, Pyrene, Benz{a} anthracene and 1,3,2,4-Dibenzanthracene. RP-HPLC was performed on an ODS-C18 column (150×4.6 mm I.D) using acetonitrile–buffer phosphate as mobile phase. UV absorption spectra of the elutes was detected in 254 nm, and studying the chromatographic variables include organic modifier ratio, PH, column temperature and concentration of buffer to maximize resolution and minimize separation time. the results showed that using mobile phase( 80:20) v/v acetonitrile:0.01M phosphate buffer solution at PH 6 with flow rate 1ml/min and column temperature 60 C° at wave length 254 nm would give ideal separation with good resolution. The separation time was (7.5) min. Introduction Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are environmental pollutants mainly formed during the incomplete combustion of organic matter, under pyroltic conditions (1,2). And they ara also formed by incomplete combustion of carbon-containing fuels such as wood, coal, diesel, fat, tobacoo, or incense (3). at high temperature the pyrolysis of organic yields molecule fragments and radicals which combine to give PAHs. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon known for their carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic properties are benz [a] anthracene, chrysene ,benzo [b] fluoranthene, benzo [j] fluoranthene, benzo [k] fluoranthene, benzo [a] pyrene, benzo [ghi] perylene, coronene, dibenz [a,h] anthracene (C20H14), indeno [1,2,3-cd]pyrene (C22H12) and ovalene (4). The US EPA has identified 16 PAHs as priority pollutants, many of these PAHs are toxic, even pollutants in water, have received considerable attention, because of their documented carcinogenicity experimental animals of several species (5). Although PAHs clearly are aromatic compounds, the degree of aromaticity can be different for each ring segment. According to Clar's rule (formulated by Eric Clar in 1964) for PAHs the resonance structure with the most disjoint aromatic пsextets—i.e. benzene-like moieties—is the most important for the characterization of the properties (6). however, there are several ansolved problems, including a practical analytical technique, under standards (7,8) adopted by the European Union (EU) for drinking water, the limit of the maximum concentration is 200 ng/l. PAHs are lipophilic, meaning they mix more easily with oil than water. The large compounds are less watersoluble and less volatile .In January 2004 (at the 203rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (9), it was reported (10) that a team led by A. Witt of the University of Toledo, Ohio studied ultraviolet light emitted by the Red Rectangle nebula and found the spectral signatures of anthracene and pyrene (no other such complex molecules had ever before been found in space). the advantage of HPLC for the fractionation of PAHs mixtures and sample clean-up are undoubted and validated. the technique of efficient separation has been described in several papers (11). The evalution and monitoring of trace levels of PAHs from authentic environmental matrices are imperative. in order to determine trace levels of ubiquitous environmental pollutants, effective, clean-up extraction and procedures are usually necessary, because of this, several analytical techniques have been developed to measure low concentration of PAHs in water. the analysis of these compounds can be performed by Variouse Gas Chromatography (GC) (12). High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) (13, 14) and electro-