Fluidized-bed extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from contaminated soil samples

Summary Due to the carcinogenity and ubiquity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the environment they are of ongoing interest to analytical chemistry. In this study, a comparison of the classic Soxhlet extraction and, fluidized-bed extraction, has been conducted. The extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by this technique has been optimized considering as experimental variables the variation of the number of extraction cycles and the holding time after reaching the heating temperature by means of a surface response design. The significance of the operational parameters of the fluidized-bed extraction on the performance characteristics has been investigated. For the determination of the analytes a selective clean-up of the extracts followed by a fast gas chromatography method with mass spectrometric detection was used, resulting in low limits of detection (0.2 pg μL⁻¹). The accuracy of the complete analytical method was established by extraction and analysis of reference materials.