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(T/EH105) Characterisation of fat retainers in ASE for the selective extraction of PCBs from fatty samples. Björklund, Erland1, Müller, Anne1, von Holst, Christoph1, 1 ABSTRACT- Determination of PCBs in fatty matrices is an important research area, but the extraction of trace compounds in presence of extractable major sample components such as lipids offer special problems. In gas chromatography, large amounts of injected fat may cause problems in the injector and at the top of the column, while using mass spectrometry detection, the ion source might become contaminated causing impaired analytical performance. Extraction procedures often rely on Soxhlet extraction, where the extract contains large amounts of lipids that need to be removed. Several clean-up procedures are available including column chromatography on Florisil or GPC. Unfortunately these extraction and clean-up procedures are solvent consuming and tedious. Today, several novel techniques are available to help analytical chemist in their efforts to produce extracts ready for analysis with a minimum of sample handling. One of the most recent sample preparation techniques is accelerated solvent extraction (ASE). In this paper we are comparing the fat retaining capability of five different fat retainers, including Florisil, basic alumina, neutral alumina, acidic alumina and sulfuric acid impregnated silica, in order to increase our knowledge regarding their behaviour during accelerated solvent extraction procedures. Additionally the different fat retainers are tested on a naturally PCB contaminated fish meal to check the effectivity in removing not only lipids but as well other co eluting compounds to find the most suitable adsorbent for real-world samples, avoiding tedious clean-up procedures. Such an approach would drastically facilitate sample throughput and reduce the workload for routine laboratories, cutting overall costs. Key words: PCBs, Fatty samples, Fat retention, ASE |
