The recognition of organic pollutants in aquatic sediments

Abstract

Aquatic sediments contain small amounts of organic matter which have been contributed from the land by water and wind erosion, from the water column, and from the sediment itself by biological activity. These fluxes include variable loads of pollutants and their degradation products. Base-line studies of the organic components of contemporary surface sediments and of layers from cores are urgently needed so that the pollutants can be distinguished from the natural compounds. Such analyses require precise analytical procedures capable of identifying pollutants and natural compounds, both expected and unexpected. Computerized gas chromatography-mass spectrometry provides this capability and the option of further processing the stored data long after acquisition. The ways in which computers can be used to process mass spectral data are discussed and some applications are described. The use of one advanced computerized gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy system for the analysis of an estuarine sediment is described in detail. The presence of phthalate esters, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and partially degraded crude oil, as well as certain natural lipids, is demonstrated.

Phthalic Acid Esters

“…Following extraction with acetone: hexane (1: 1) they passed the extract through an alumina/Florisiljcopper column with dichloromethane: hexane and then further purified by sequential treatment with Celite, sulfuric acid and mercury. Eglinton [59] used purification on TLC (silica gel) after extraction with heptane: 2-propanol (1: 4).…”

A review of current applications of mass spectrometry for biomarker/molecular tracer elucidations

“…Many of those compounds are of environmental concern due to their production quantities, toxicity, persistence, and tendency to bioaccumulate (Schwarzenbach, Gschwend, & Imboden, 1993DeCaprio, 1997;Eganhouse, 1997;Takada et al, 1997;Aboul-Kassim & Simoneit, 2001). They can enter the hydrosphere (Hites, 1973(Hites, , 1977Lopez-Avila & Hites, 1980;Poiger et al, 1996;Leeming et al, 1997;Suter et al, 1997Suter et al, , 1999Simonich et al, 2000), atmosphere (Atlas et al, 1993;Baker & Hites, 1997;Hillery, Basu, & Hites, 1997;Strandberg et al, 2001;Whiteaker & Prather, 2003), geosphere into soils and sediments (Hom et al, 1974;Eglinton, Simoneit, & Zoro, 1975;Beller & Simoneit, 1986, 1988Kumata, Takada, & Ogura, 1997;Reiser, Toljander, & Giger, 1997;Stoll et al, 1997;Rogge, Medeiros, & Simoneit, 2004a-c), and up the food chain in biota (Risebrough et al, 1967;Bowes et al, 1973;Goldberg et al, 1978;Spitzer et al, 1978;Jarman et al, 1992Jarman et al, , 1993Simonich & Hites, 1995a). These applications of MS will keep increasing as more problems become evident, and as the sensitivities of the instrumental methods increase to ever-improved detection limits.…”