SIMULTANEOUS ANALYSIS OF THE ANTIFOULING AGENTS - TRIBUTYLTIN, TRIPHENYLTIN AND IRGAROL-1051 IN MARINA WATER SAMPLES

An analytical method for the simultaneous quantitative determination o f organotin and triazine antifouling agents in sea water has been deve loped and optimized. The method involves extraction of organotin compo unds and IRGAROL 1051 into dichloromethane with simultaneous derivatiz ation of the organotins using sodium tetraethylborate. The extracts we re analyzed without additional purification. Separation and determinat ion of individual compounds, including tributyltin, triphenyltin (toge ther with their degradation products) and IRGAROL 1051 were performed by capillary gas chromatography (cGC). Selected ion monitoring GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS-SIM) was used to quantify both classes simultaneo usly, although cGC with flame photometric detection (cGC-FPD) and cGC with nitrogen phosphorus detection (cGC-NPD) were also used separately to analyze the same extract of organotins and triazine, respectively. Recoveries of the individual spiked triazines and the organotin chlor ides (at concentrations of approximately 100 ng l(-1)) were higher tha n 70% (with a RSD lower than +/- 13%). The detection limits of the pro cedure (for 750 ml water samples) range between 0.5 and 1.4 ng l(-1) f or the various organotin species and between 0.5 and 2.2 ng l(-1) for IRGAROL 1051 (dependent upon which GC detector is used).