Determination of mono- to tri-chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans in stack gas using isotope dilution high resolution gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method for the determination of mono- to tri-chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (mono- to tri-CDD/Fs) in stack gas using isotope dilution high resolution gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC-HRMS) was developed. The sam- ples were extracted by Soxhlet extraction, and then the extracts were concentrated and purified using a multilayer silica gel column and a basic alumina column. The analytes were separated by HRGC on a DB-5MS column (30 m x 0.25 mm x 0.25 μm) and determined by HRMS. The identi- fication of mono- to tri-CDD/Fs was based on the retention times of 13C-labelled standard and the abundance ratios of the two exacted mass-to-charge ratios. The quantitative analysis was performed using the ratios of the integrated areas of the 13C-labelled standards. This method had the recoveries ranging from 66.6% to 112.5% and the relative standard deviations (RSD) ranging from 19.9% to 40.5% (n = 5). The limits of detection (LODs) of this method for the mono- to tri-CDD/Fs were ranging from 0.027 to 0.485 μg/L. Three stack gas samples from waste incinerators were measured using this method, with the recoveries ranging from 85.7% to 137.0% and the concentrations ranging from 11.4 to 9,183 pg/Nm3. The results indicated that the method can be applied to the precise determination of mono- to tri-CDD/Fs at trace level in stack gas.