Efficient screening method for determining base/neutral and acidic semi-volatile organic priority pollutants in sediments

Aquatic sediments

“…Ultrasonic extraction was compared with Soxhlet extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Marvin et al, 1992).The yield of organic material from sediment samples using ultrasonication with two solvents was 2.53 ± 0.10% whereas the Soxhlet method yielded 2.41 ± 0.14% of the initial sample weight. A screening method capable of recovering base/neutral and acidic organic priority pollutants involved solvent extraction with sonication, solidphase extract clean-up, and quantitative analysis by gas chromatography-ion-trap mass spectrometry (Davis et al, 1993b). The spatial variation of organic pollutants in adjacently collected sediments was found to be greater than anticipated and does not appear to be a result of analytical imprecision.…”