Rapid simultaneous determination of four anthracene derivatives using a single non-linear variable-angle synchronous fluorescence spectrum

A rapid, simple and inexpensive spectrofluorimetric method has been developed for the simultaneous identification and quantification of anthracene (ANT), 9,10-dimethylanthracene (DIM), 2-aminoanthracene (AMI) and dibenz/ah/anthracene (DIB). A well-resolved spectrum for the mixture of these four compounds is obtained based on a single non-linear variable-angle synchronous scanning. The linear concentration ranges are 10-1000, 5-500, 50-1000 and 10-200 ng mL^-1 for ANT, DIM, AMI and DIB, respectively, at λ_ex/λ_em = 358/380, 399/408, 414/465 and 298/394 nm, respectively. The analyses are performed in cyclohexane. Recoveries of 90.0-111.0% in synthetic mixtures are obtained. The detection limits are 2.0 ng mL^-1 for DIM, 2.7 ng mL^-1 for ANT, 15.8 ng mL^-1 for AMI and 4.2 ng mL^-1 for DIB. The method has also been applied to several real water samples with satisfactory results.