PT06 Organic, Metallic, Organometallic Pollutants
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Tuesday
(PT089) Highly sensitive GC/ICP-MS analysis of organotin compounds in seawater.
Kurihara, R.1, Ramaswamy, B.2, Tao, H.2, Yamamoto, I.3, Hashimoto, S.1, 1 Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Japan2 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan3 Metocean Environment Inc., Shida-gun, Shizuoka, Japan
ABSTRACT- From the late 1960s through the 1980s, organotin compounds were extensively used as antifouling agents in marine paint because of their excellent antifouling properties. However, these compounds can adversely affect nontarget marine organisms, and leaching of organotin compounds from marine paint has caused marine pollution. In this study, we developed a highly sensitive analytical procedure for determining the levels of volatile methylated organotin compounds in seawater. First, we compared two methods for derivatizing the organotin compounds for chromatographic analysis. We confirmed that ethylation of organotin compounds with sodium tetraethylborate was superior to propylation with a Grignard reagent (i.e., lower detection limits were achieved with ethylated derivatives). Then we compared the analytical sensitivities of a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) instrument and a gas chromatography/inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (GC/ICP-MS) instrument, and determined that GC/ICP-MS was more sensitive than GC/MS for analysis of organotin compounds. We used our procedure to measure the concentrations of 13 kinds of organotin compounds in seawater from the coastal areas of Suruga Bay, Japan, and the Antarctic Ocean. We detected 11 kinds of organotin compounds in coastal seawater from Suruga Bay; tributyltin was detected at the highest concentration. In addition, we detected methylated tributyltin compounds in coastal seawater from Suruga Bay. Trace levels of organotin compounds were detected in seawater from the Antarctic Ocean. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be transported through volatilization of organotin compounds, and volatilization of organotin compounds may be a major sink in the marine environment.
Key words: GC/ICP-MS, organotin compounds, Antarctic Ocean, Suruga Bay