Preparation and certification of solutions of perdeuterated polycyclic aromatic compounds intended for use as surrogate internal standards

Two standard solutions of deuterated polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) have been prepared for use as surrogate internal standards. Solution DPAC-1 contains 21 deuterated PACs, and is intended for use with mass spectrometric (MS) detection. Most of the difficulties in certifying concentrations in DPAC-1 arose from the fact that none of the individual compounds was 100% deuterated, so that effects of mass spectrometric fragmentation are convoluted with those of isotopic distributions. The best methods are discussed for using such internal standards so as to minimize these problems, together with those arising from kinetic isotope effects. Solution DPAC-2 contains 6 deuterated PACs, and is primarily intended for use with reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection (FLD, dual programmed wavelength mode), in which the signals for analyte and internal standard are separated chromatographically rather than via the detector. Full details of the preparation of these solutions are described. In addition, examples of their use in the analysis of a certified coal-tar extract (NIST SRM 1597) are described briefly. In one example a novel HPLC-MS technique was employed, and in the other the HPLC-FLD technique was used.