TRACE ANALYSIS OF HETERO AROMATIC-COMPOUNDS (NSO) IN WATER AND POLLUTED GROUNDWATER BY SOLID-PHASE MICRO-EXTRACTION (SPME)

By using Solid Phase Micro-Extraction (SPME) and Capillary Gas Chromat ography (CGC) a method was developed to analyze hetero aromatic compou nds (NSO) in water, Compounds with nitrogen, sulfur, or oxygen in the aromatic ring system are found in creosote-contaminated groundwater. N SO are highly water-soluble, toxic, and have adverse organoleptic char acteristics. SPME is a fast, simple, and solvent-free sample preparati on technique that involves exposing a polymer coated fiber to a sample to extract contaminants, Different fiber coatings were tested, and po lyacrylate was found to extract NSO in the highest amounts and to be m ost versatile, Extraction was strongly enhanced by salting, The optimi zed SPME method combined with CGC coupled to an ion trap mass spectrom eter (ITMS) has detection limits of 20-40 ng/L for the semi-volatile a nd 1-10 mu g/L for the volatile NSO, response linear with respect to c oncentrations over three orders of magnitude, and precision of 3-14% r elative standard deviation, The method was evaluated using real creoso te-contaminated groundwater samples and feasibility was demonstrated, SPME-CGC/ITMS allows an unequivocal identification and quantification at a low NSO level in environmental samples.