Selective analysis of fluorene by quenched fluorescence in cetylpyridinium bromide micelles

Cetylpyridinium bromide (CPB) acts as a quencher, provoking inhibition of the fluorescence intensity emitted by fluorene. The differences in the fluorescence quenching of several polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) allow us to develop a selective synchronous spectrofluorometric method for the determination of fluorene in a CPB micellar medium at lambda(s,ex)(0) = 299 nm (Delta lambda = 10 nm), with a detection limit of 8.5 ng ml(-1). The method was applied to the analysis of groundwater samples spiked with suitable amounts of fluorene, as well as to groundwater samples polluted with combustibles. (C) 1998 Academic Press.