Feasibility of the simultaneous determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons based on two-dimensional fluorescence correlation spectroscopy

Abstract A new approach for quantitative determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environment was proposed based on two-dimensional (2D) fluorescence correlation spectroscopy in conjunction with multivariate method. 40 mixture solutions of anthracene and pyrene were prepared in the laboratory. Excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectra of all samples were collected. And 2D fluorescence correlation spectra were calculated under the excitation perturbation. The N-way partial least squares (N-PLS) models were developed based on 2D fluorescence correlation spectra, showing a root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC) of 3.50 μg L − 1 and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 4.42 μg L − 1 for anthracene and of 3.61 μg L − 1 and 4.29 μg L − 1 for pyrene, respectively. Also, the N-PLS models were developed for quantitative analysis of anthracene and pyrene using EEM fluorescence spectra. The RMSEC and RMSEP were 3.97 μg L − 1 and 4.63 μg L − 1 for anthracene, 4.46 μg L − 1 and 4.52 μg L − 1 for pyrene, respectively. It was found that the N-PLS model using 2D fluorescence correlation spectra could provide better results comparing with EEM fluorescence spectra because of its low RMSEC and RMSEP. The methodology proposed has the potential to be an alternative method for detection of PAHs in environment.