Determination of five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in aqueous micellar media by fluorescence at room temperature

The influence of some aqueous micellar systems in the determination of pyrene, phenanthrene, benzo(a)pyrene, acenaphthene and fluorene by fluorescence at room temperature has been investigated. The presence of these micellar systems allows its determination in an aqueous media eliminating the use of an organic solvent. The analytical characteristics of the proposed method (Linear range, sensitivity and detection limits) in presence of anionic micelles of sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) have been studied. The detection limits found, for the five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are at the level of ng ml(-1) The method has been applied to the determination of these PAHs in water samples spiked with three concentration levels and in all cases average recoveries greater than 93% was obtained. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.