Detection of Benzene and Alkylated Benzene Derivatives in Fuel Contaminated Environments Dana J. DiScenza, Molly Verderame, and Mindy Levine Department of Chemistry, University of Rhode Island, 51 Lower College Road, Kingston, RI 02881, USA Corresponding Author: Mindy Levine, Department of Chemistry, University of Rhode Island, 51 Lower College Road, Kingston, RI 02881, USA Email: mlevine@chm.uri.edu; mindy.levine@gmail.com Abstract Reported herein is the sensitive and selective detection of benzene and alkylated benzene derivatives as well as the practical application of this system in the detection of fuel contaminated environments following a March 2015 tanker truck crash at the Bourne Rotary in Bourne, Massachusetts. This detection method relies on the ability of cyclodextrin to promote proximity-induced fluorescence modulation of a high quantum yield fluorophore, which led to unique modulation responses for each cyclodextrin-analyte-fluorophore combination investigated. The measured changes in fluorescence emission were used to generate arrays using linear discriminant analysis to generate unique pattern identifiers for each combination. The method was successful in detecting ppm levels of analytes with 100% success in differentiating analytes in purified buffer solution and 100% success in differentiating between analytes in water samples from three collection locations related to the crash site: downstream, upstream, and directly from the drainage pipe. Notably, this method was successful in generating well-separated signals for structural isomers of xylene ( ortho, meta, para) which is difficult without specialized mass spectrometry-based techniques. The high selectivity, sensitivity, and broad applicability of this method have significant potential in the detection of aromatic analytes in a wide range of complex environments. Keywords: environmental chemistry, pollution, water 1 Introduction The detection of benzene and alkylated benzene derivatives remains a high priority due to these compounds’ known toxicity and carcinogenicity [1--4], as well as their prevalence in a variety of fuels and fuel additives [5, 6]. The high vapor pressures associated with many of these compounds [7, 8] means that in the event of an anthropogenic spill or contamination event, individuals’ exposure to such toxicants via airborne routes is likely to be facile and widespread [9, 10]. This is precisely what occurred in March 2015 when a tanker truck crashed at the Bourne rotary in Bourne, Massachusetts, spilling over 5000 gallons of fuel [11]. The extent of the contamination included air (from the vapors of the aromatic analytes), soil (from the fuel that soaked into the soil), and water (from fuel that drained directly into the Cape Cod canal). There are some options that exist for the environmental remediation of fuel spills [12--16]; however, the high cost of