Photoactivated luminescence spot test for rapid screening of polychlorinated biphenyls

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:276358

Vo-Dinh, T; Pal, A; Pal, T ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)

The US Department of Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency have a strong need for screening capabilities for hazardous materials. Especially, there is a critical demand to have a rapid and simple technique for screening polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) under field conditions. The use of field screening analysis allows rapid decisions in a cleanup operation and reduces the need for either return visits to a site by a cleanup crew or extensive and costly laboratory analyses of samples that contain no detectable levels of PCBs. Field screening techniques also reduce the cost of remedial actions by preventing unnecessary excavation of uncontaminated soil. This paper describes a new method based on enhanced photoactivated luminescence (EPL) for rapid detection of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The EPL method described here is a unique procedure combining several processes including (1) photoactivation by UV irradiation, (2) excitation of the photoproduct complex, and (3) fluorescence detection of the product. The EPL procedure is simple and rapid and can be performed as a spot test method under field conditions. The methodology for determination of total chlorine content of complex PCB mixtures is described.

• OSTI ID: 276358
• Report Number(s): CONF-950209--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
FIELD TESTS
MEASURING METHODS
PHOTOCHEMICAL REACTIONS
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS
REMEDIAL ACTION
SOILS
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION