Extraction of Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons from Water Samples Using Solid Phase Extraction and Analysis Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are pervasive toxic chemicals that occur as a result of long-term anthropogenic induced pollution. In this study, a column extraction set-up incorporating avocado peel powder was applied for removal of PAHs; naphthalene and anthracene from Nandoni Dam, an essential source of drinking water within the Thulamela district in Limpopo, South Africa. Parameters that were optimized in the extraction of these pollutants include sorbent diameter, concentration of standard PAHs, mass of sorbent, sample pH, loading volume, elution solvent, and elution volume. In this study, avocado peels powder was used as the sorbent. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used as the instrument of analysis, and it showed that SPE was effective in the extraction of PAHs using a sorbent size of 16 µm and a standard concentration of 9 mg L −1 . The results also revealed that the optimum sorbent mass was 250 mg with toluene as the elution solvent. Maximum recovery of the PAHs was observed to be at sample pH 7 with 75 mL as the loading volume and 5 mL as the elution volume. The detection of PAHs from real water samples proved that the SPE method is effective in the extraction of wastewaters with avocado peels as the sorbent.