SUPERCRITICAL-FLUID EXTRACTION OF ORGANOTINS FROM BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES AND SPECIATION BY LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY AND INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY

Supercritical fluid extraction is used to extract tributyltin and trip henyltin from biological samples. The extraction conditions with carbo n dioxide as supercritical fluid (methanol modifier used) are optimize d for the organotins from fish tissue certified reference material. Th e total extraction time is found to be approximately 15 min. The recov ery studies at the optimal conditions shows a recovery of 44% for trib utyltin and 23% for triphenyltin. The reproducibilities for both the c ompounds extracted are within 2% R.S.D. The optimum conditions obtaine d are also used to extract tributyltin and triphenyltin from tuna fish obtained from a local grocery store.