Determination of organotins in aquatic food by gas chromatography with pulsed flame photometric detection

A method based on gas chromatography (GC)-pulsed flame photometric detection (PFPD) was developed to determine the levels of organotins in aquatic food. After being purified by gel-permeation chromatography in ethyl actate-tetrahydrofuran, the organotin compounds were derivatized by pentylmagnesium bromide. The derivative products were injected into the GC system and detected by PFPD (sulfur mode). The method was validated by analysis of the certified reference material and spiked samples. Recoveries of organotins ranged from 84.1 to 116.6% with relative standard deviation between 1.3 and 16.0% when spiked at levels of 2, 10, and 40 mu g/kg. The limits of detection varied from 0.1 to 1.2 mu g/kg for shellfish and 0.1 to 0.5 mu g/kg for fish. The proposed method was suitable for determining organotins in aquatic foods.