Fast low-pressure microwave assisted extraction and gas chromatographic determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in soil samples.

A new technology equipment for low-pressure microwave assisted extraction (usually employed for organic chemistry reactions), recently launched in the market, is used for the first time in environmental analysis for the extraction of commercial technical Aroclor mixtures from soil. Certified reference materials of Aroclor 1260, Aroclor 1254 and Aroclor 1242 in transformer oils were used to contaminate the soil samples and to optimize the extraction method as well as the subsequent gas chromatographic electron capture detection (GC-ECD) analytical method. The study was performed optimizing the extraction, the purification and the gas chromatographic separation conditions to enhance the resolution of difficult pairs of congeners (C28/31 and C141/179). After optimization, the recovery yields were included within the range 79-84%. The detection limits, evaluated for two different commercial polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixtures (Aroclor 1260 and Aroclor 1242) were 0.056 ± 0.001 mg/kg and 0.290 ± 0.006 mg/kg, respectively. The method, validated with certified soil samples, was used to analyze a soil sample after an event of failure of a pole-mounted transformer which caused the dumping of PCB contaminated oil in soil. Moreover, the method provides simple sample handling, fast extraction with reduced amount of sample and solvents than usually required, and simple purification step involving the use of solvent (cyclohexane) volumes as low as 5 mL. Reliability and reproducibility of extraction conditions are ensured by direct and continuous monitoring of temperature and pressure conditions.
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