Monitoring anionic surfactants (LAS) and their intermediate degradation products in the marine environment

The determination of synthetic anionic surfactants and their degradation products in environmental samples is a complex problem. This complexity is even greater in seawater, especially from littoral zones, owing to the presence of numerous organic substances that may potentially interfere with the analysis of the samples; more common among these are naturally-occurring surfactant compounds. Various stages are involved in the determination of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS), which are the surfactants most used commercially, and their degradation products (sulfophenylcarboxylic acids or SPC); successful completion of these analytical stages should result in the concentration of these compounds, their isolation, their quantification and, in cases where no reference standards are available, their structural identification. At the present time, some of these stages are still under development.