Determination of organic priority pollutants in sewage treatment plant effluents by gas chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry

作者：Robles Molina Jose; Gilbert Lopez Bienvenida; Garcia Reyes Juan F; Molina Diaz Antonio^*

来源：Talanta, 2010, 82(4): 1318-1324.

DOI：10.1016/j.talanta.2010.06.053

• Wastewater
• Environmental analysis
• Gas chromatography mass spectrometry
• Monitoring
• Removal of priority pollutants
• Sewage treatment plant

In this work, we report the development and validation of an analytical method for the trace level determination 01 14 selected (EU-directive) priority organic pollutants (namely, 1,2,3-trichlorobenzene (1,2,3-TCB), 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, 1.3,5-trichlorobenzene, hexachloro-1,3-butadiene, pentachlorobenzene, hexachlorobenzene, alachlor, a-hexachloro-cyclohexane (alpha-HCH), beta-HCH, gamma-HCH (lindane), delta-HCH, tetra-brominated diphenyl ether (tetra-BDE), penta-brominated diphenyl ether and hepta-brominated diphenyl ether) in wastewater samples from 5 different sewage treatment plants (STPs) located in Spain. The proposed methodology is based on liquid-liquid extraction with n-hexane followed by identification and confirmation of the selected pollutants by gas chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry in selected ion recording acquisition mode. Recovery studies performed with spiked wastewater samples at two different concentration levels (0.1 and 1 mu g L(-1)) gave mean recoveries in the range 80-120% (except for trichlorobenzenes, ca. with 50%) with RSD values below 10% in most cases, thus confirming the usefulness of the proposed methodology for the analyses of this kind of complex samples. The obtained detection limits in effluent wastewater matrices were in the low nanogram per liter range, with values as low as 0.09 ng L(-1) for tetra-BDE and 0.3 ng L(-1) for hexachlorobenzene. Finally, the proposed methodology was successfully applied to a monitoring study intended to characterize waste,water effluents of 5 different sewage treatment plants with different major activities (Industrial, Coastal, Urban). Most of the compounds targeted were detected in the ng L(-1) range at concentrations ranging from 0.19 ng L(-1) to 135 ng L(-1) (hexachlorobenzene).

• 出版日期2010-9-15