Determination of N-nitrosodimethylamine as part-per-trillion levels drinking waters and contaminated groundwaters
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
The carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) may be quantitated routinely at ultratrace (ng/L) levels in drinking water or contaminated groundwater. NDMA is selectively detected using a chemiluminescent nitrogen detector (CLND) operated in its nitrosamine-selective mode. The reporting limit for this procedure, evaluated using two independent statistically unbiased protocols, is 2 ng of NDMA/L. A related procedure, employing an automatic sampler instead of the short-path thermal desorber, provides convenient analysis of heavily contaminated samples and exhibits a reporting limit (same protocols cited previously) of 110 ng of NDMA/L. When the two methods are used together in a `two-tiered` protocol, NDMA concentrations spanning 4 orders of magnitude (ng/L to {mu}g/L levels) may be measured routinely. The low-level procedure employing only the short-path thermal desorber was applied successfully to three sources of drinking water, where NDMA concentrations ranged between 2 and 10 ng of NDMA/L. The two-tiered protocol was applied to a series of contaminated groundwaters whose NDMA concentrations ranged between approximately 10-7000 ng of NDMA/L. The results agreed with those obtained from an independent collaborating laboratory, which used a different analytical procedure. 39 refs., 6 figs., 6 tabs.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 171489
- Journal Information:
- Analytical Chemistry (Washington), Journal Name: Analytical Chemistry (Washington) Journal Issue: 23 Vol. 67; ISSN ANCHAM; ISSN 0003-2700
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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