Ultra Preconcentration of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Smoked Bacon by a Combination of SPE and DLLME

A sample pretreatment method, solid-phase extraction combined with dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (SPE–DLLME), was established for the sensitive determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in smoked bacon samples. In the SPE–DLLME process, three PAHs including naphthalene (Naph), phenanthrene (Phen) and pyrene (Pyr) were extracted from samples and transferred into C18 SPE cartridge. The target analytes were subsequently eluted with 1.2 ml of acetonitrile–dichloromethane (5:1, v/v) mixture solution. The eluent was injected directly into the 5.0 ml ultrapure water in the subsequent DLLME procedure. The sedimented phase was concentrated under a gentle nitrogen flow to 120.0 µl. Finally, the analytes in the extraction solvent were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with a ultra-violet detector. Some important extraction parameters affecting the performance, such as the sample solution flow rate, breakthrough volume, salt addition as well as the type and volume of the elution solvent were optimized. The developed method provided an ultra enrichment factors for PAHs ranged from 3478 to 3824. The method was applied for the selective extraction and sensitive determination of PAHs in smoked bacon samples. The limits of detection (S/N = 3) were 0.05, 0.01, 0.02 μg kg−1 for Naph, Phen, Pyr, respectively.