A novel liquid-liquid extraction for the determination of naphthalene by GC-MS with deuterated anthracene as internal standard

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are known for their carcinogenic and mutagenic effects on human health. This therefore calls for the regulation of their concentrations in air, water, and soil. Naphthalene as the simplest in structure of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is mainly used as a starter material for other chemicals but also has impacts on human health. A method is therefore proposed for the determination of naphthalene in water samples by gas chromatography mass spectrometry after liquid-liquid extraction. The extraction method was optimized to improve the extraction output, thereby lowering the limit of detection. The limits of detection and quantification obtained for naphthalene were 4.4 and 14.6 ng mL^?1, respectively. Deuterated anthracene was used as internal standard to enhance the precision of the method, for which a relative standard deviation of 4.3% was obtained. The percent recovery of naphthalene obtained from tap water was ranged between 93.8 and 102.2.