Low level detection of Benzene in Food Grade Hexane by Ultraviolet Spectrophotometry

A simple, sensitive, and accurate Ultraviolet Spectrophotometric method has been developed and validated for the determination of Benzene in Food Grade Hexane. Benzene in spectroscopic grade Hexane shows vibrational fine structure having four well resolved peaks. In the wavelength range 240-270 nm, peak at 255 nm is considered for the method development. Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration range of 0.6-10.04 mu L L-1, with correlation coefficient, 0.9999, detection limit 0.2 mu L L-1 and quantitation limit 0.6 mu L L-1 are established. Percentage recovery studies showed that the method was not affected by the presence of other solvents having the similar boiling range with Hexane. The method was validated by determining its accuracy and precision which proves suitability of the developed method for the routine determination of Benzene in Food Grade Hexane. The proposed method has been applied successfully for the analysis of the Food Grade Hexane. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.