Simultaneous Determination of Phenanthrene and Benzo(a)pyrene in Water Samples by Synchronous Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Abstract

A simple and sensitive method was developed to simultaneously determine phenanthrene and benzo(a)pyrene in water samples using synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy with a 56-nm Δλ. The method was used to simultaneously determine both compounds in samples of spiked surface water. Analytical recoveries were 96.9–101.1% for phenanthrene and 95.8–103.5% for benzo(a)pyrene. Analytical results were checked for precision with 15 measurements for each compound. Relative standard deviations were 1.9% for phenanthrene and 2.9% for benzo(a)pyrene, which shows that the proposed method is quite precise.

Keywords:

• Benzo(a)pyrene
• phenanthrene
• synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy

The authors acknowledge the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo for the scholarships (Grant 07/50461-3) and funding (Grant 05/51242-8).