GC/MS analysis of petroleum derived PAHs in intertidal sediment from Taean after the Hebei Spirit oil spill

Abstract

Petrogenic PAHs in sediment were quantitatively analyzed using GC/MS. Intertidal sediment samples were collected along the Taean coast after the Hebei Spirit oil spill. Sediments were extracted using Soxhlet extractor, and fractionated by silica-gel column chromatography. Sixteen US EPA priority PAHs and 5 alkylated PAHs groups were identified and quantified using selected ion monitoring. Quality control procedures including matrix spikes, sample duplicates, and laboratory blanks were processed with field samples and satisfied their acceptable range. Standard reference materials (NIST 1941a) were analyzed to monitor the performance of the analytical methods and the recoveries of target PAHs were between 75% and 112%. Over 278 sediment samples were analyzed after the oil spill, and mean concentration of 16 PAHs and alkylated PAHs right after the spill were 191 ng/g and 3,540 ng/g, respectively. Thereafter, these values decreased exponentially and approached to background level (< 50 ng/g) in June 2010. Three years after the spill, most of sites showed sign of recovery, while locally PAHs fingerprint in sediments still exhibit the residual effects of stranded oil.