MASS-SPECTROMETRIC INVESTIGATIONS OF WATER EXTRACTS OF THE RIVER ELBE FOR THE DETERMINATION OF POTENTIAL INPUTS OF POLLUTANTS INTO THE NORTH-SEA

A non-target screening by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry has been carried out on water extracts of the river Elbe in order to obtain an overview of organic compounds being dissolved or bound to suspended matter in the Elbe. Samples of 1001 volume were taken at the freshwater border at Stade and extracted by liquid-liquid extraction with pentane, Before GC-MS analysis, the water extracts were fractionated into 15 subsamples by HPLC on an SiO2 column, A sensitivity of ca. 50 to 250 pg/l was reached for the GC-MC analysis, Several hundreds of natural and anthropogenic compounds could be identified or at least grouped into a compound class, The presence of a number of compounds could be verified from earlier investigations, in addition a great number of anthropogenic compounds were described which have previously not been reported for the river Elbe.