Studies on Environmental Contamination by Polychlorinated Naphthalenes (PCN). II. Determination of PCN in Biological Samples by Gas-Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A method for gas-liquid chromatographic determination of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCN) in biological samples were investigated. This method is based on saponification of the sample with an alkaline ethanolic solution, extraction of PCN with hexane, treatment of the extract with concentrated sulfuric acid, clean-up of the extract by silica gel column chromatography, the separation from polychlorinated biphenyls by thin-layer chromatography on polyamide, and then the determination by gas-liquid chromatography using an electron-capture detector. Fatty biological samples fortified with PCN at a level of 10 ppb were analyzed by this method, with recoveries of 83.6-89.3%.