Analysis of unknown organic pollutants in sewage by solid-phase extraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

A rapid, simple, and reliable method of solid-phase extraction (SPE) combined with gas chromatography (GC)-mass spectrometry (MS) is developed for the analysis of a wide range of polarity of unknown organic pollutants in sewage. Wastewater samples are extracted by passing them through disposable C18 cartridges, and the extracts are then analyzed by GC-MS. Different SPE parameters for ten organic compounds in the list of priority pollutants suggested by the China Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are studied, and their breakthrough volumes are determined. Extraction recoveries for the tested compounds are greater than 60%, except the recovery of 1,2-dichloroethane is 48%. The relative standard deviations are less than 7.8% (n = 3). The developed approach is successfully applied for the identification of organic components in a sewage sample. Over 220 organic pollutants are identified, with 5 of these present in the list of priority pollutants suggested by the U.S. EPA and 4 from the list by the China EPA.