Indirect Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Organics from Water Matrix Samples

Abstract

Abstract Inexpensive and easy to automate instrumentation and procedures for rapid isolation of environmental pollutants from water matrix is described. In this method the organic contaminants are first adsorbed onto the solid sorbent. After the removal of moisture from the extraction vessel the supercritical fluid extraction of sorbent follows. Then the analyte is transferred directly onto the front of the gas chromatographic capillary column with the help of a piece of small I.D. fused silica capillary. The whole isolation process is controlled by a single ten-port valve. Performance of this technique is evaluated using water spiked with a mixture of polychlorinated benzenes. Full recoveries of analytes are obtained by this simple method. The total time of extraction was about 1 hour per sample. The application of this approach to the analysis of aqueous suspensions is discussed.