GAS CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF ABATE USING FLAME PHOTOMETRIC AND ELECTRON-CAPTURE DETECTORS

A gas chromatograph equipped with a flame photometric detector has been used for the development of a highly sensitive and specific method for the determination of Abate (O,O,O′,O′-tetramethyl-O,O′- thiodi-p-phenylene phosphorothioate) in water. Since only phosphorus or sulfur is determined by this detector, no clean-up is required. Therefore, n-hexane extracts of water samples were concentrated to a suitable volume and aliquots were injected directly into the gas chromatograph. The recovery of Abate from water averaged 98.5 = 1.3%. The method is sensitive to 2 ng. of Abate as phosphorus and to 30 ng. of Abate as sulfur. The method can also be used with gas chromatographs equipped with electron-capture detector, and possibly other detectors. However, with the electron-capture detector, the method is only sensitive to 8 ng. and lacks the specificity of the flame photometric detector. © 1969, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.