Fluorescence techniques for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in marine environment: An overview

Abstract

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are compounds of great environmental interest because of their potential carcinogenic and mutagenic activity and their frequent occurrence in the environment, above all in the marine environment. Therefore it is an important to establish simple, sensitive and reliable methods for the determination of these compounds. In this work we report an overview on the application of fluorescence techniques to the study and determination of PAHs in marine samples: water, sediments and organisms. Conventional fluorescence spectroscopy, synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy, Shpol'skii fluorescence spectroscopy and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection constitute the most interesting analytical techniques for the determination of these pollutants.