A sample pretreatment method was developed for 12 hydroxylated polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (OHPAHs) in sediment samples. The OHPAHs was extracted by accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) from sediment matrix and clean up by solid phase extraction (SPE)

the target compounds were finally analyzed by GC-MS after derivatization by BSTFA. Several parameters

including the extraction solvent for ASE

alumina oxide sorbent for SPE and derivatization time that affected the proposed method

were optimized. The results showed that the LODs of the target analytes were ng·kg

-1

 level and the RSDs were acceptable (

<

10%) when using methanol as ASE extraction reagent at 60 ℃ for 60 min and alumina oxide as SPE sorbent. Moreover

the recoveries of the analytes were higher than 60% except for 9-hydroxy-phenanthrene (39.5%). The proposed method was applied to determine 12 hydroxylated PAHs in sediments of Humen estuary

south China and 10hydroxylated PAHs were detected with the concentrations ranging from 0.58 (4hydroxyphenanthrene) to 2.4 ng·g

-1

 (6-hydroxy-chyrene).