Chapter 24 Environmental analysis

Abstract

This chapter describes advances in the analysis of environmental volatile, semivolatile, and nonvolatile organic compounds. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) comprise the largest class of chemical carcinogens known to enter the environment through various sources. Natural sources include forest fires, volcanos, sediments, fossils, and fossil fuels. Anthropogenic sources include the burning of coal, oil, and wood; coal production, automobiles, and municipal solid-waste incinerators (MSWI). Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) has been used successfully in the identification and quantitation of a large number of “volatile” organic pollutants in water. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a particularly well-suited technique for analytical fractionation of the nonvolatile organics. Many toxic or carcinogenic compounds are distributed in the environment at low levels. Determination of organics at parts-per-trillion (ppt) levels can be performed by combining sensitive and selective detection with sample preconcentration. Because concentrated samples are highly complex, several prefractionation steps may be required to isolate compounds of interest. A complete scheme for trace analysis of organic compounds generally consists of sampling, extraction, prefractionation, and analysis by GC or GC/MS. In addition to chlorinated organics, attention has been focused on PAHs and volatile organics in water, air, and soil samples. Selection of the best analytical approach is one of the most important factors influencing the reliability of results.