Jae Ryoung Oh
South Sea Institute
Korea Ocean Research and Development
Institute (KORDI)
Measurement
of toxicologically relevant Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners such
as non-ortho (IUPAC#) 77, 81, 126,
169 and mono-ortho 105, 114, 118,
123, 156, 157, 189 and di-ortho
170, 180 and Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) such as 47, 66, 85, 99,
100, 138, 153, 154 in environmental
samples become almost mandatory in several countries now. However, most of
the available methods involve expensive instrumentations such as HRGC-HRMS
or ECNI-LRMS, apart from expensive extraction and clean-up (with large volume
of solvents) steps. A method has been devised combining the analytical separation
power of PYE [2-(1-pyrenyl)ethyldimethysilylated silica] column HPLC and high-resolution
gas chromatographic techniques including micro-electron capture detection
(ECD) and two dimensional gas chromatograpy-ECD techniques to determine
these eco-toxic substances at parts-per-trillion (ppt) levels. This combination
resolves co-elution of congeners that occur in disproportionate ratios (e.g.
CB-110 and -77) and allows accurate congener-specific determination of target
compounds. This method is cost effective as it requires only hexane, that
in small quantities (10mL) and GC-ECD. The elution and analysis time are optimized
to less man hours. This method could be effectively utilized in the analysis
of co-planar PCBs and PBDEs from archived
solvent extracts of samples previously analyzed for organochlorine pesticides
and PCBs. Structure based separation of contaminant classes improves GC-ECD
determination at ppt levels.