Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Corn Using Accelerated Solvent Extraction and Gel Permeation Chromatography with Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

A rapid analytical method for the determination of 16 PAHs in corn was proposed. The samples were extracted by accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) using dichloromethane as the extraction solvent. The ASE cell was filled up with 3.0 g Al2O3-N sorbent and 10.0 g corn. After the extraction, some small molecule compounds can be eliminated by the sorbent. The gel permeation chromotography (GPC) was used to remove the grease and pigment in the, sample, extract, and dichloromethane was used as mobile phase at a flow rate of 3.0 mL/min, the elution fractions was collected from 9 to 10 min. 1 mL concentrated solution was analyzed by GC-SIM-MS. The average recoveries of 16 PAHs and 4 surrogates were 55.7% - 145.3%, spiked at two different levels. The relative standard deviations (RSD) for all the compounds were 1.4% - 16.8%. The detection limit (LOD) of the method varied between 0.005 and 0.120 ng/g. This method was fast, simple. It can be applied in routine analysis for different grist.