SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF ORGANOTIN, ORGANOLEAD, AND ORGANOMERCURY COMPOUNDS IN ENVIRONMENTAL-SAMPLES USING CAPILLARY GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH ATOMIC-EMISSION DETECTION

As part of a continuing evaluation of new analytical and sample prepar ation techniques conducted by the US Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA), the use of capillary gas chromatography with atomic emission det ection (GC-AED) for the simultaneous determination of organotin, organ olead, and organomercury compounds in environmental samples was invest igated. Pentylmagnesium bromide was used to pentylate ionic organotin, organolead, and organomercury compounds; the pentyl derivatives were then separated by GC and determined by AED. Several important GC-AED p arameters, including the type of injector inlet, carrier gas flow rate , and helium make-up gas flow rate, were optimized for the simultaneou s determination of these organometallic compounds. Their minimum detec table concentrations were approximately 1.0 to 2.5 ng/mL using a 0.5-m uL on-column injection. The calibration curves exhibited good linearit y between 2.5 and 2500 ng/mL for organotin and organolead compounds, a nd between 2.5 and 10000 ng/mL for organomercury compounds.