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Thermo Fisher Scientific has developed a high-performance liquid chromatography method to determine 20 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environmental waters using on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) for sample preparation.

This approach moves the off-line sample preparation procedures of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Methods 550 and 550.1 on line to save time and labor. Application Note (AN) 1085: Sensitive and Rapid Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Tap Water demonstrates reduced method detection limits for ultraviolet and fluorescence detections, thus enabling a convenient method for determination of PAHs in environmental and drinking water.

Due to the potential carcinogenic and mutagenic properties of PAHs, most countries have regulations limiting the concentrations of a variety of these compounds in drinking water, food additives, cosmetics, workplaces, and factory emissions. This necessitates extensive testing with associated costs for the additional time, labor, and supplies required. The new AN 1085 approach reduces testing time and labor through the use of on-line SPE, which eliminates manual processes such as rotary evaporation and nitrogen-assisted evaporation in the routine liquid-liquid extraction and off-line SPE steps described in EPA Methods 550 and 550.1.

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