Determination of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins and Furans (PCDD/Fs) in Environmental Samples and Incinerator Ash Using Accelerated Solvent Extraction with High Sensitivity GC-MS/MS

Poster Presentation

Prepared by R. Jack
Thermo Fisher Scientific, 1214 Oakmead Parkway , Sunnyvale, CA, 94085, United States


Contact Information: [email protected]; 408-481-4227


ABSTRACT

The measurement of backgrounds levels of PCDD/Fs in the environment is a widespread activity carried out by many regulatory agencies globally. The chronic toxicity of these compounds to humans and wildlife at extremely low concentrations requires that the techniques used in determination must be both sensitive and selective enough to allow high confidence results. This is especially true when measuring background levels in environmental matrices, such as soil and sediment or by products from waste incineration processes. Traditionally high resolution magnetic sector GC-MS (GC-HRMS) instrumentation has delivered the required analytical performance and has become the gold standard technique. In recent years there has been more interest in GC triple quadrupole instrumentation for this purpose, especially in the area of food safety control. For this and environmental analysis, it is necessary to deliver data that performs in the range of HRMS systems which means especially sensitive triple quadrupole systems are required.

Presented is the determination of PCDD/Fs in sediments, soils, bottom and fly ash (as incineration by-products) using Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) and GC-MS/MS. During this study, instrumental LOQs using GC-MS/MS were calculated in the low fg/ul concentration ranges. This and further analytical performance is discussed alongside GC-HRMS; especially degree of agreement between the techniques in some routine sample batches.