A rapid procedure for the determination of C60 and C70 fullerenes in soil and sediments by ultrasound-assisted extraction and HPLC-UV.

In this work, a rapid and sensitive method, based on ultrasound-assisted extraction of samples with a small volume of toluene, has been developed for the quantification of C60 and C70 fullerenes in soil and sediments. Good extraction efficiencies were obtained at all of the fortification levels studied (200, 100, 20 and 2 ng/g), which ranged from 72 to 104%. An important effect of the extraction temperature was observed on C60 recoveries, and an acceptable decrease in the recovery rates was observed in aged samples. In the case of wet samples, the extraction can be done by percolating a small volume of acetonitrile before extraction. The extraction yields of the developed method for the extraction of C60 and C70 from soil were compared with those obtained by pressurized liquid extraction. Finally, analyses of fullerenes in agricultural and industrial soils and sediments were carried out, but no fullerene residues were found.