Simultaneous Determination of Phenanthrene and Benzo(a)pyrene in Water Samples by Synchronous Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Processo FAPESP: 07/50461-3

Processo FAPESP: 05/51242-8

A simple and sensitive method was developed to simultaneously determine phenanthrene and benzo(a) pyrene in water samples using synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy with a 56-nm Delta lambda. The method was used to simultaneously determine both compounds in samples of spiked surface water. Analytical recoveries were 96.9-101.1% for phenanthrene and 95.8-103.5% for benzo(a) pyrene. Analytical results were checked for precision with 15 measurements for each compound. Relative standard deviations were 1.9% for phenanthrene and 2.9% for benzo(a) pyrene, which shows that the proposed method is quite precise.