GAS CHROMATOGRAPHIC-MASS SPECTROMETRIC DETERMINATION OF ANTHRAQUINONESULFONATES IN ENVIRONMENTAL-SAMPLES

A method is described for the determination of trace amounts of anthraquinonesulfonates (ASs) in environmental samples such as river water and soils. ASs in aqueous samples were adsorbed on Dowex WGR weakly anion exchange resin and eluted with 1.5 M hydrochloric acid. The eluates were converted into volatile chloroanthraquinones by chlorine substitution using sodium chlorate in hydrochloric acid solution and determined by gas chromatography-selected ion monitoring (GC-SIM). Soil samples were treated similarly to aqueous samples after sonication with distilled water at 80-degrees-C. The detection limits for sodium anthraquinone-1-sulfonate (1-AS) and sodium anthraquinone-2-sulfonate (2-AS) were 0.005 ng and 0.02 ng, respectively, with 1-mu-l of injected sample. The recoveries of 1-AS and 2-AS from river water and soil samples were over 86% and 62% with relative standard deviation (RSD) below 7% (n = 7). This method is capable of simultaneous determination of ASs with sufficient sensitivity and selectivity to be applicable to environmental samples.