1990 Volume 6 Issue 6 Pages 851-855
A gas chromatographic method is described for the determination of di- and tributyltin compounds in seawater. Organotin compounds in seawater led to their chlorides with hydrochloric acid. The chlorides were reacted with sodium borohydride to produce hydrides and simultaneously extracted with hexane by stirring extraction. The organic layer was concentrated by a gentle stream of nitrogen and passed through a SEP-PAK silica cartridge for cleaning. The trapped organotin compounds were eluted with hexane, concentrated by a gentle stream of nitrogen and determined by gas chromatography with a flame photometric detector. Separation of the organotin compounds was successfully carried out using a DB-1 wide bore column. The detection limits of di- and tributyltin compounds as their chlorides were 0.10ng (25ng/l for 400ml of the sample) and 0.08ng (20ng/l for the same sample). Compounds yielding dibutyltin dihydride and tributyltin hydride were found in Hakata port seawater at levels of 240 to 480ng/l and 27 to 93ng/l as their chlorides.
