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Aromatic hydrocarbons extracted by headspace and microextraction methods in water-soluble fractions from crude oil, fuels and lubricants

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Abstract

Two extraction protocols were developed for the determination of mono- and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons in water-soluble fractions from gasoline, diesel, crude, mineral insulating, and lubricant oils. Development of the procedures was based on clean miniaturized strategies, such as headspace extraction and vortex-assisted dispersive liquid micro-extraction, together with quantification by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The mono-aromatic hydrocarbons were extracted using the headspace extraction method. The linear range obtained was 10–500 µg L−1, with r2 > 0.99. Based on the parameters of the analytical curves, detection and quantification limits of 2.56–3.20 and 7.76–9.71 µg L−1 were estimated. In addition, the method showed adequate recoveries of 69.4–83.5%, with a satisfactory precision of 4.7–17.1% (n = 5). Micro-extraction was applied for the poly-aromatics and the most favorable variables were sample volume (5.00 mL) in sodium chloride medium (1%, w/v), trichloromethane as extractor solvent (75 µL), acetone as disperser (925 µL) and vortexing for 1 min. Under these conditions, analytical curves of 0.15–4.00 µg L−1 were obtained and limits of determination and quantification were 0.03–0.15 and 0.09–0.46 µg L−1, respectively. Recovery values of 87.6–124.5% and a maximum relative standard deviation of 18.9% (n = 5) verify satisfactory accuracy and precision. This led to the achievement of enrichment factors for poly-aromatic hydrocarbons of 41–89 times. Finally, the methods were employed in samples of water-soluble fractions for the determination of analytes. The values followed the order: gasoline > diesel > crude > lubricant > mineral insulating oil. These results indicate an increase in lighter fractions, followed by poly-aromatics in more refined products.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the funding was provided by Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) (#2012/00201-3) providing a post-doc to RGD. The authors are grateful to “Instituto Nacional de Ciências e Tecnologias Analíticas Avançadas” (INCTAA, proc. 465768/2014-8), “Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos” (FINEP, CTHIDRO 01/2013) and “Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico” (CNPq)—Finance Code 0001.

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  1. Grupo de Química Ambiental, Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, CP 19032, CEP 81531-980, Brazil

    Rafael Garrett Dolatto, Hugo Sarmiento Vela, Morgana de Souza Camargo & Marco Tadeu Grassi

  2. Grupo Integrado de Aquicultura e Estudos Ambientais, Departamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, CEP 80035-050, Brazil

    Giorgi Dal Pont & Antonio Ostrensky Neto

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Dolatto, R.G., Pont, G.D., Vela, H.S. et al. Aromatic hydrocarbons extracted by headspace and microextraction methods in water-soluble fractions from crude oil, fuels and lubricants. ANAL. SCI. 39, 573–587 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44211-023-00274-z

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