SCREENING-METHOD FOR ORGANOTINS BY ELIMINATION OF THE INORGANIC TIN MATRIX USING A COUPLING OF HYDRIDE GENERATION (HG) AND TRANSVERSELY HEATED GRAPHITE ATOMIZER-ATOMIC ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY (THGA-AAS)

A selective detection method for organotin compounds by elimination of the inorganic tin matrix has been worked out using a coupling of the hydride generation technique (HG) with transversely heated graphite at omizer-atomic absorption spectrometry (THGA-AAS). The suppression of t he inorganic tin matrix bases on the utilization of kinetic interferen ces during the hydride generation step avoiding expensive chromatograp hic separation techniques. For the different organotins this method de livers detection limits in the range 0.9-1.2 mu g/L using a 500 CLL sa mple loop. In comparison with the fully automated determination system this modification represents an efficient screening-method for the de termination of organotin in environmental samples allowing fast and in expensive monitoring.