Determination of 16 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Soils by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

A method for the determination of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) sample preparation was developed. A mixture solution of methylene chloride/acetone (1∶1, V/V) was selected as the optimum extraction solvent through the experiments. The detection limits of the method for PAHs were 0.10~3.9 ng/g and the recoveries were 72.6%~123.5%. The method provides the advantages of lower detection limits, good precision and is suitable for the determination of PAHs in soils.