Speciation analysis of butyltin compounds in sediments of the Theoule harbour (France) by GC/AES

Abstract

Over the last years, great progress in the research on speciation of butyltins has been made. Many coupling techniques have been successfully developed, with better applications to sediments samples in the environment. Sediments were collected from 1999 to 2000 to elucidate butyltin pollution in Theoule harbour. Most of the analysed samples showed evidence of butyltin compounds. The results show that the concentration of Tributyltin (TBT) was in the range 20–200 µg/kg in March 1999, 20–340 µg/kg in June 1999, 180–1280 µg/kg in July 2000, and 55–820 µg/kg in October 2000. A comparison of the MBT, DBT, and TBT results show that in 1999 the concentrations were in the order TBT<DBT<MBT while in 2000 these concentrations were in the order TBT > DBT > MBT, with some exceptions. The patterns observed in many sediment cores show a great disparity of organotin input concentration among the cores collected during one month and also during two different months, and from one season to the other. This paper provides information on the use of the acetic acid leaching system in the determination of butyltin. The method is applied to evaluate the occurrence of these species in sediments from the Theoule harbour, between 1999 and 2000. In this study, a GC/AES was applied, complemented with acetic acid leaching and monitored using two certified reference materials: PACS-2 reference sediment and BCR 462 (Report EUR 18406 EN, 1998).