Determination of endocrine disrupting aromatic compounds in water and sediment by using an essential oil distillator

A GC;RIS method has been developed for endocrine disrupting aromatic compou nds in water and sediment, The target compounds were benzophenone, 4-nitrot oluene, styrene dimmers (i.e. 2,4-diphenyl-1-butene, cis-1,2-dipherlylcyclo butane, trans-1,2-diphenylcyclobutane and 1,3-diphenylpropane) and styrene trimmers (i.e. la-phenyl-1a-4a-(1-phenylethyl)tetralin, 1a-phenyl-4e-(1'-ph enylethyl)tetralin, 1e-phenyl-4a-(1'-phenylethyl) tetralin, 1e-phenyle-4e(1 '-phenylethyl)tetralin and 2,4,6-triphenyl-1-hexene) together with 2-nitrot oluene and 3-nitrotoluene. A water sample of 350 mi or a sediment sample of 20 g with 350 mi of purified water in a 500 mi flask was added to 0.2 mu g of surrogate compounds (benzophenone-d(10), 1,2-diphenylethane-d(14) and n itrobenzene-d(5)) and 5 mi of hexane. The flask was connected to an improve d essential oil distillator and the mixture was distilled for 90 min. The h exane extract was condensed to 1 mi and fractionated by column chromatograp hy using a silica-gel cartridge; the target compounds and the surrogate com pounds were eluted from the column using 4 mi of acetone-hexane (20 : 80, v /v) after a fraction with 4 mi of hexane. The eluate was condensed to 1 mi and then added with internal standards for GC/MS determination. The recover ies of the target compounds were 88 to 111% for water samples and 80 to 113 % for sediment samples. The minimum detectable concentrations were 0.005 to 0.01 mg 1(-1) in water and 0.3 to 0.5 mg g(-1) in sediment.