IP10 Emerging Issues in Analytical Chemistry
B115 & B116
1:20 PM - 4:40 PM, Wednesday
(IP081) Analysis of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) using a TDU inline coupled with GC/MS.
Lee, W.-Y.1, De La Torre-Roche, R.1, Rocha-Gutierrez, B.1, Yamaguchi, C.1, Campos-Diaz, S.1, 1 University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
ABSTRACT- Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a group of compounds that persist in the environment and can be transported over long distances. Due to their persistence and lipophilicity, POPs are found to be accumulated and magnified in the food chain. Ongoing studies of POPs are focused on their fate and transport in the environment, and the impact on the ecosystem and human health. The analysis of POPs therefore involves various sample matrices such as soil, air, water, plant, and biological samples. Commonly used sample preparation methods in POP analysis include Soxhlet extraction, microwave assistant extraction, liquid-liquid extraction, and solid phase extraction. The disadvantage of most of these techniques is time and solvent consuming. Recently, a new technique, which is known as stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) is developed for the analysis of hydrophobic organic compounds mainly in water. SBSE uses a stir bar coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as extraction medium to concentrate non-polar analytes from polar matrices. After extraction, the analytes are then thermally desorbed from the stir bar and injected directly into a GC/MS for analysis. This newly developed technique has shown the potential as a highly efficient and cost effective technique for extracting volatile and semi-volatile compounds from water samples. The objective of this study is to exploit the SBSE technique for the study of POPs in various environmental and biological sample matices, such as soil, vegetation, food, breast milk and blood samples. A thermal desoption unit (TDU) inline coupled with a GC/MS will be used. Selected POPs are but not limited to DDT, PCBs, chlordane, lindane, and heptachlor. Method development including the recovery rate in SBSE and sensitivity will be reported. Concentration of POPs in environmental samples, which are collected from the region, will be presented.
Key words: SBSE, POPs, GC/MS, Method Development