Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―Cambridge Congress of Advanced Studies‖ (April 3-5, 2026) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. - Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2026. - 350 p.

91 human health, of which 16 are identified as priority pollutants. This list has become the basis for the development of modern analytical approaches. Today, there is a wide range of methods for extracting PAHs from soil matrices, each of which has specific analytical advantages and limitations. For their separation and quantitative determination, highly sensitive methods of gas (GC-FID, GC-MS/MS) and liquid chromatography with various types of detection (HPLC-FLD, DAD, MS/MS) are used. The effective extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) requires obtaining selective extracts purified from associated matrix components that cause signal interference during chromatographic determination. The aim of this work was to optimize the method for quantitative analysis of 16 priority PAHs (according to the US EPA list) in soils using QuEChERS sample preparation technology. The study is aimed at assessing the validation characteristics of the method for different types of soil matrices using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence (HPLC-FLD) and diode array (HPLC-DAD) detection. Special attention is paid to improving the algorithms for processing analytical signals to increase the accuracy of chromatogram interpretation. The authors optimized and improved the method for determining 16 priority PAHs in soils using QuEChERS sample preparation and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The separation was performed on a specialized LC Column PAH (250×4.6 mm, 3.5 μm). By selecting the parameters of fluorescence (FLD) and diode array (DAD) detection, it was possible to reduce the analysis time and reduce its cost. Sample preparation of soil samples was carried out as follows. The soil was dried, homogenized and ground, 10 g was taken. It was placed in 50 ml centrifuge tubes. 10 ml of deionized water was added and mixed on a vortex for 1 min. After that, 10 ml of acetonitrile was added to the tube, mixed for 1 min and 4 g of anhydrous magnesium sulfate + 1 g of sodium chloride were added. The contents of the tube were shaken vigorously for 1 min. The resulting mixture was centrifuged for 10 min at 8000 rpm. After that, 5 ml of the extract was transferred to a 12 ml centrifuge tube with 1.2 g of QuEChERS Mix VI Clean-up-Mix sorbent and shaken