Quantum Dots Extraction Coupled With High-Performance Liquid Chromatography for the Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Water

Abstract

Abstract. A novel alternative method is presented for the extraction and preconcentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from water samples. This new approach takes advantage of the strong affinity that exists between PAHs and N-acetyl-L-cysteine modified CdS quantum dots (NAC-CdS QDs). The NAC-CdS QDs were synthesized in our own laboratory. Twelve different PAHs in tap water samples were preconcentrated by NAC-CdS QDs before high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD). The test results suggest that the limits of detection (LODs) for the PAHs were from 1.0 to 100 ng/L with the relative standard deviations ranging from 0.4 to 2.8% and the recoveries were varied from 74.3 to 95.9%, respectively. The entire extraction procedure with this novel pretreatment just consumes 1 mL organic solvents per sample, which makes it environmentally friendly and cost effective.

Recent Advances in the Extraction of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Environmental Samples

“…Other d-SPE sorbents that have been applied for the extraction of PAHs from environmental samples include graphene/sepiolite [53] and N-acetyl-l-cysteine modified CdS quantum dots [54].…”