Direct determination of coronene in heavy oil fraction by high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple and selective HPLC method for the determination of coronene in hydrocracked vacuum gas oils is described. The method is based on normal-phase HPLC separation on a column packed with 3,5-dinitroben-zamidopropyl (DNBAP)-silica gel and on-line detection of the eluate with a diode-array detector. The diluted oil samples were injected directly on to the DNBAP column with a mixture of light petroleum (b.p. 60–90°C) and o-xylene as eluent. The absolute detection limit was 7.9 ng when using UV detection at 305 nm, corresponding to a concentration detection limit of 4.0 μg/g in the original oil samples, if a 20-μl diluted sample with an oil concentration of 0.1 g/ml is injected. The relative standard deviation for ten replicate determinations was 2.8% at a coronene concentration of 7.02 μg/ml.