Enantioselective analysis of chiral polychlorinated biphenyls in sediment samples by multidimensional gas chromatography-electron-capture detection after steam distillation-solvent extraction and sulfur removal

Chirality as an Environmental Forensics Tool

“…This hypothesis is supported by several studies on PCB chirality. The first measurements of chiral PCBs in sediments found racemic residues of PCBs 95, 132, and 149 in sediments of the river Elsenz in southern Germany [71]. Similar results were found for PCBs 91,95,136,149,174,176,and 183 in Environment Canada Certified Reference Material EC-5, consisting of sediments from the mouth of the Humber River in Toronto [105].…”

“…Indeed, most of the initial research on chiral POPs focused on developing enantioselectiveanalytical techniques, particularly by GC [67], as it is the most suitable chromatographic tool for separations of nonpolar semi-volatile analytes. Multidimensional GC with heart-cutting of selected peaks from an achiral column to an enantioselective second column, although less common, is useful in eliminating interferences, particularly for complex classes of POPs such as PCBs [68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76] and toxaphene [77,78]. More recently, comprehensive two-dimensional GC Â GC, in which effluent from the first dimension column is focused and pulsed continually to a short second dimension column [79], has been used for enantioselective separations [73,74,[80][81][82].…”

Quantification and determination of enantiomeric ratios of chiral PCB 95, PCB 132, and PCB 149 in shark liver samples (C. coelolepis) from the Atlantic Ocean

“…The MDGC technique described recently [16,17,23] has been used for the determination of the enantiomeric ratios of the chiral PCB congeners in shark samples. Figure 1 shows the separation of the enantiomers of the cut fraction of chiral PCB congeners 95, 132, and 149 from the technical mixture (Clophen A60) via MDGC.…”

Environmental occurrence, analysis, and toxicology of toxaphene compounds.

“…The peak area/height of the (+)-enantiomer is divided by that of the (-)-enantiomer (120)(121)(122)(123). When the conformation of the enantiomers eluting from a chromatographic system is not known, as with enantiomers present in toxaphene, the ER is often expressed as the peak area/height of the first eluting enantiomer divided by that of the second (124).…”