EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT DERIVATIZATION METHODS FOR THE MULTIELEMENT DETECTION OF HG, PB AND SN COMPOUNDS BY GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY MICROWAVE-INDUCED PLASMA-ATOMIC EMISSION-SPECTROMETRY IN ENVIRONMENTAL-SAMPLES

A multi-element, element-specific detector for gas chromatography (GC) based on atomic emission spectroscopy (AES) with a microwave induced plasma (MIP) source was tested on some environmental samples. As deriv atization procedure, direct aqueous phase ethylation and chelation/ext raction followed by Grignard reaction were tested on the following ion s: methylmercury, ethylmercury, phenylmercury, mercury(II), trimethyll ead, dimethyllead, lead(II), trimethyltin, dimethyltin, triethyltin, t ripropyltin, tributyltin, dibutyltin, butyltin, and tin(IV). For mercu ry species a direct aqueous phase phenylation was successfully tested. The different methods of derivatization are compared, and the perform ance (sensitivity, linearity) of the GC-MIP-AES system is discussed. S ome examples of application to environmental samples (biological tissu es) are given.