Preservation Techniques for Analysis of Organic Compounds in Water Samples – A Review –

Abstract

Abstract Sample storage is a necessary and critical step in water analysis. During the storage, many changes in the sample may occur; namely chemical and physical reactions, microbiological degradation and the nature of sample-container may produce analyte losses. To minimize changes between collection and analysis, standard methods contain a part within which preservation techniques are described, e.g. chemical addition, temperature control, choice of sampling container and holding times. A review of some results published in recent studies show there are no absolute rules to prevent all the analyte modifications and to define a holding time optimized for each preservative technique. We have to take into account the character of the samples and the properties of the analytes to validate the preservation techniques. Generally, if immediate analysis is not possible, rapid addition of the extraction solvent and storage of sample extracts at 4°C is recommended. For the future, field extraction using SPE disk...