Abstract: A method for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and phthalate esters (PAEs) in soil samples by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed. After extracted by accelerated solvent extraction or ultrasonic extraction by dichloromethane-hexane (1:1, v/v) and dichloromethane-acetone (1:1, v/v), respectively, the extracts were cleaned up by solid phase extraction and/or gel permeation chromatography. Quality control and quality assurance procedures were carried out with the methods of whole procedure blank, blank spike recovery, clean soil matrix spike recovery, and the comparison with reference materials. The method detection limits were 0.13~2.2 μg/kg and 0.19~0.52 μg/kg and the average recoveries were 41.5%~116.9%和90.7%~107.1% for the PAHs and the PAEs, respectively. The results showed that the method can meet the technical requirements on the soil sample test and analysis in the national survey of soil pollution.

Key words: phthalate esters, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, quality assurance, quality control, soil , gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)