Abstract: A method was developed for the determination of phenanthrene, fluoranthene and chrysene in environmental water samples using disposable fibers of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC). The disposable SPME fibers for the extraction were added into the sample (60 mL) spiked with 20 g/L NaCl. After extracted for 60 min at a stirring speed of 1200 r/min, the fibers were collected and immersed in 120 μL methanol for 24 h to desorb the analytes for the HPLC analysis followed. Under the optimized conditions, the respective detection limits were 0.17 μg/L for phenanthrene and fluoranthene, and 0.08 μg/L for chrysene, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were less than 8% (n=6). The method was successfully applied to analyze real environmental water samples with spiked recoveries in the range of 80.0%~107%. This method is cost-effective, easy to operate, and overcomes the carry-over problem of the pollutants on the fibers.

Key words: environmental waters , high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), disposable fibers solid-phase microextraction