DETERMINATION OF ORGANOTIN COMPOUNDS IN AQUEOUS SAMPLES BY MEANS OF HPGC-AED

Organotin compounds belong to the widespread micropollutants in the aquatic environment. They can be analysed by different analytical procedures. The recently available atomic emission detector (AED) in combination with gas chromatography is a promising tool for this task. Identification and quantification of organotin compounds in water and sediment can be achieved in ranges of ng/l and mu-g/l, respectively. The quality criteria for the values obtained depend strongly on the matrices and on the tin-species investigated. In general recovery rates are higher for aqueous samples than for sediments. From model experiments it can be deduced that humic substances play an important role in adsorption of tin organyles in sediment. In addition to the known fact that activated carbon readily eliminates tributyltin from aqueous solutions, the kinetics of recovery experiments show that part of the organotin compounds are irreversibly adsorbed on solid phase.