Determination of tetrachloroethylene and other volatile halogenated organic compounds in oil wastes by headspace SPME GC-MS

Oil wastes and slops are complex mixtures of hydrocarbons, which may contain a variety of contaminants including tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene, PCE) and other volatile halogenated organic compounds (VHOCs). The analytical determination of PCE at trace levels in petroleum-derived matrices is difficult to carry out in the presence of large amounts of hydrocarbon matrix components. In the following study, we demonstrate that headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with GC-MS analysis can be applied for the rapid measurement of PCE concentration in oil samples. The HS-SPME method was developed using liquid paraffin as matrix matching reference material for external and internal calibration and optimisation of experimental parameters. The limit of quantitation was 0.05 mg kg(-1), and linearity was established up to 25 mg kg(-1). The HS-SPME method was extended to several VHOCs, including trichloroethylene (TCE) in different matrices and was applied to the quantitative analysis of PCE and TCE in real samples.