Improvement of extraction recovery for the monobutyltin species from sediment

An improvement of the extraction recovery of the MBT species from sediment has been achieved by using a more polar solvent, toluene, and tropolone as chelating agent. A recovery of 84.7 +/- 6.3% from spiked sediment has been achieved, which is the highest recovery of MBT species from sediment so far reported using solvent extraction techniques. The relative detection limit for organotin compounds in general in sediment (2 g) is 0.5 ng g(-1) when gas chromatography with atomic emission spectrometric detection is used for the analysis. Relative standard deviations (%) for recovery of MBT, DBT and TBT in spiked sediment range from 2.5 to 6.3% (at 0.5 mu g g(-1) level). The extraction solution also recovers satisfactorily 7 other commonly used organotin compounds. Analyses of selected environmental samples and the Reference Sediment PACS-1 are given.