VOLATILE AND SEMIVOLATILE ORGANO-HALOGEN TRACE ANALYSIS IN SURFACE-WATER BY DIRECT AQUEOUS INJECTION GC-ECD

A procedure for simultaneous determination of volatile and semivolatil e chloroorganic compounds (from trichloromethane to di- and trichlorob enzenes to hexachlorobutadiene) in aqueous samples was developed. The procedure is based on a DAT-GC-ECD technique widely used for trihalome thanes determination in drinking water. The DAI technique application could have been extended to semivolatile chloroorganic compounds by us ing a Rtx-624 (60 m x 0.32 mm I.D., d(f) 1.8 mu m (6% cyanopropyl, 94% dimethyl polysiloxane). Precision (R.S.D.) and detection limits of th e DAI-GC-ECD procedure with respect to 12 volatile and semivolatile ch loroorganics were determined. Relative standard deviations (R.S.D.) we re lower than 22% and the detection limits (concentration equivalent t o a peak height three times the baseline noise) range from 0.02 mu g L -1 for trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene to 0.25 mu g L-1 for hexa chlorobutadiene to 1.6 mu g L-1 for 1,2-dichlorobenzene. The method wa s successfully used to determine chloroorganic pollutants in river wat er. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.