Comparison of extraction techniques on determination of PAHs in drinking water samples

• Pages: 7-12

Vol. 9 No. 1

March, 2023

ISSN 2410-3918

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

7

Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

Comparison of extraction techniques on determination of PAHs in drinking

water samples

Jonida Canaj

Department of Industrial Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences UT, Albania

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide some data about the extraction techniques and

comparisonofthemforquanticationoftoxiccompoundsaspolycyclicaromatichydrocarbons

in drinking water samples. It is very important detecting and analyzing polycyclic aromatic

hydrocarbons (PAHs) because of their toxicity and carcinogenicity to human. There are

sometechniques ofextracting PAHsfrom dierentwater matricessuch asdrinking water.

The classical technique is liquid-liquid extraction (LLE). Dierent extraction techniques as

solid-phase extraction (SPE), LLE, Automated SPE, used to release PAHs from water samples

havebeenoverviewedindierentstudies.Themethodusedinthisstudyaboutextractionof

SPE technique is Environment Protection Agency (EPA) 8310 method. Recoveries have been

obtainedusing thisSPE method, butnot allparameters havesignicate valueofrecovery.

Maybe these low values of recovery come from losing PAHs during the evaporation or from

solventofextraction.TherecoveryofPAHsismoresignicantinthecaseoftheconcentration

100 µg/L of stock standard (table 1), this means that in very low concentration SPE technique

is not the right one. The accuracy of SPE technique is not on very high level depending on

the PAHs results. The conclusion of this study is using LLE technique is more detectable in

drinking water samples.

Keywords: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs, extraction technique, LLE, SPE.

Introduction

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic compounds that are mostly

colorless, white, or pale yellow solids. PAHs can be formed both during biological

processes and as products of incomplete combustion from either natural combustion

sources (forest and brush res) or man-made combustion sources (automobile

emissionsand cigareesmoke). Theterm “PAHs”refers tocompounds consisting

of only carbon and hydrogen atoms. PAHs are multiple organic ring structures and

some are carcinogenic and mutagenic [5].

Dierent extraction techniques have been developed and applied for extracting

PAHsfromwatersamples.Theselectedextractiontechnique,notonlyinuencesthe

accuracy of the results, but also determines the total analysis time and costs. Solid-

phase extraction (SPE) is an extraction and preconcentration technique that has been

used successfully when trace levels of organic compounds were characterized [4, 6,

8]. SPE is a sequential method which includes adsorbent conditioning, adsorbent

equilibration, sample loading, washing of adsorbent and the elution of analytes

[2].Itisaquick,selective extractionandpuricationsamplemethod,whichallows

smallvolumeofsamples tobeanalyzedwithoutbeingpre-treatedrst asinliquid-

liquid extraction (LLE) [2] In contrast to the SPE, the LLE method despite its low cost