Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Isomers of Molecular Weight 278 and 302 in Environmental Standard Reference Materials

Abstract Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) of molecular weight (MW) 278 (dibenzanthracene isomers) and 302 (dibenzopyrene/dibenzofluoranthene isomers) are seldom measured in environmental samples. A multidimensional liquid chromatography (LC) procedure was developed for the quantification of isomers of MW278 and 302. The multidimensional LC procedure consists of normal-phase LC to isolate the PAH isomer groups followed by analysis of the isomeric groups by reversed-phase LC with fluorescence detection. Using the multidimensional LC procedure, six isomers of MW 278 and nine isomers of MW 302 were quantified in four environmental Standard Reference Materials (SRMs): coal tar (SRM 1597), air particulate matter (SRMs 1648 and 1649), and marine sediment (SRM 1941).