ULTRASONIC TREATMENT OF MOLLUSCAN TISSUE FOR ORGANOTIN SPECIATION

A method is described for the extraction of nanogram amounts of mono-, di- and tributyltin compounds from bivalves, The procedure is based o n treatment of lyophilized samples with 0.08% m/v tropolone solution i n methanol in successive sonication steps. The method was applied to o yster and cockle samples from southwest Spain and the results compared favourably with those given by typical leaching methods based on the use of acid reagents, owing to the absence of degradation processes.