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Analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by capillary electrochromatography by using capillary columns packed with polycyclic‐aromatic‐hydrocarbon‐specific particles
Author(s) -
Wu Jiabei,
Sun Jiannan,
Cheng Heyong,
Liu Jinhua,
Wang Yuanchao
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
separation science plus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2573-1815
DOI - 10.1002/sscp.201800063
Subject(s) - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon , chemistry , aromatic hydrocarbon , hydrocarbon , naphthalene , pyrene , capillary electrochromatography , environmental chemistry , aromaticity , chromatography , organic chemistry , capillary electrophoresis , molecule
Abstract As a result of their carcinogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic properties, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are considered as priority pollutants by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environment draws extensive attention in the analytical community. The diversity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in terms of chemical structures and properties leads to the requirement for highly efficient separation technologies. This study describes the usage of polycyclic‐aromatic‐hydrocarbon‐specific particles as a stationary phase for the separation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by capillary electrochromatography. A comparison of the separations of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons performed on capillary columns packed with polycyclic‐aromatic‐hydrocarbon‐specific particles and C 18 silica microspheres indicated that polycyclic‐aromatic‐hydrocarbon‐specific particles showed a wider distribution and larger gap in chromatographic retention factor (0.6–41.8) toward polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons than C 18 (2.0–14.2). As a result, resolutions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on columns packed with polycyclic‐aromatic‐hydrocarbon‐specific particles (1.2–9.9) were significantly superior over those on C 18 ‐packed capillary columns (0.5–6.3). A mobile phase of 20 mM Tris (pH 8.5)/acetonitrile (15:85 v/v) was optimized for the rapid separation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at a pressurized flow rate of 0.2 mL min −1 under an applied voltage of –16 kV. Limits of detection of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were obtained in the range 0.020–0.89 mg L −1 with good precisions (intracolumn reproducibilities of 0.2–1.9% for retention time, 1.4–4.2% for peak height and 1.4–4.4% for peak area, and intracolumn reproducibilities of 2.6–4.2% for retention time, 3.4–7.2% for peak height and 6.9–9.7% for peak area). The proposed method was employed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons analysis in fresh water with good recovery (87.6–112.4%), where polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in all water samples were present at levels below the detection limits.