Determination of PCB congeners in sediments: Solutions to an old problem
- State Univ. of New York, Albany, NY (United States)
Sonication has been evaluated and compared with Soxhlet extraction and solvent steam distillation for extraction of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from sediments and soil. A gas chromatograph equipped with a Ni-63 electron-capture detector using a 5% phenyl methyl silicone fused silica capillary column was used to determine 68 PCB congeners. The influence loss of PCB during drying was found to be considerable. Recoveries of PCBs from three river sediments, a soil and a standard US EPA sediment have been determined for different solvent systems with the sonication procedure. PCB recovery as a function of sonication time was evaluated 3 minutes was the optimum sonication time. The higher recovery and precision were obtained with wet samples and using hexane-acetone (1:1) as solvent, and a 3 min. sonication period. The average MDL was 1 ng/g dry weight. Results utilizing GC/EC were compared with those obtained by GC/MS with one US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) quality control sediment the sand, silt and clay fractions from a river sediments from Fort Miller, NY. Effects of aging on PCB congener extraction efficiency were investigated, less chlorinated PCB were more difficult to extract than more chlorinated PCB, mechanisms accounting for this phenomenon will be discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 230856
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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