Simultaneous Prediction, Determination, and Extraction of Four Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Environment Using a UCON–NaH2PO4 Aqueous Two-Phase Extraction System Combined with High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Ultraviolet Detection

Abstract

In this paper, a new aqueous two-phase extraction system(ATPES) consisting of UCON (poly(ethylene glycol-ran-propylene glycol) monobutyl ether)–NaH2PO4 was established, and four trace polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs: fluorene, anthracene, pyrene and phenanthrene) in water and soil were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)–ultraviolet detection. In the multi-factor experiment, the central composite design (CCD) was used to determine the optimum technological conditions. The final optimal conditions were as follows: the concentration of UCON was 0.45 g·mL−1, the concentration of NaH2PO4 was 3.5 mol·L−1, and the temperature was 30 °C. The recovery of the four targets was 98.91–99.84% with a relative standard deviation of 0.3–2.1%. Then UCON recycling and cyclic tests were designed in the experiment, and the results showed that the recovery of PAHs gradually increased in the three extractions because of the remaining PAHs in the salt phase of last extraction. The recovery of PAHs in the UCON recycling test was less than that in the extraction test due to the wastage of UCON. In addition, a two-phase aqueous extraction model was established based on the random forest (RF) model. The results obtained were compared with the experimental data, and the root mean square error (RMSE) was 0.0371–0.0514 and the correlation coefficient R2 was 96.20–98.53%, proving that the model is robust and reliable.