Speciation of organotin compounds in shellfish by liquid chromatography - fluorimetric detection

A method for the determination of butyltin and phenyltin species in marine organisms by liquid chromatography is described. Analytes are extracted fro m the samples using ethyl acetate and hydrochloric acid. A clean-up step ba sed on a solid-phase extraction using a cation exchange bonded phase has be en developed to remove coextracted substances from the ethyl acetate extrac t. Determination is carried out by gradient elution on a silica-based C-18 column with mobile phases consisting of methanol-water-acetic acid mixtures and using fluorimetric detection. The method, which allows the determinati on of the analytes at the ng g(-1) level, has been applied to the analysis of diphenyltin, dibutyltin, triphenyltin and tributyltin in oyster and muss el tissues. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.