Study on Accelerated Solvent Extraction of n-alkanes in Soil Samples

The paper described the determination of n-alkanes in soil samples by gas chromatography with accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) for sample pretreatment. The main factors which affect the extraction yield of n-alkanes by ASE, such as the temperature, pressure, static time and cycle times were discussed. The results showed that the optimum parameters for n-alkanes extraction from soil samples were： temperature of 150℃, pressure of 10.3 MPa, static time of 10 min and 2 cycles. The precision of method was 8% to 23%RSD. The results also showed that the extraction efficiency of total n-alkanes and short carbon chain n-alkanesby ASE was superior to the conventional Soxhlet extraction.