| Abstract
| - The effectiveness of the extraction conditions proposed inASE U.S. EPA Method 3545 was evaluated for theextraction of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in BalticSea sediments with different sample characteristics suchas organic carbon, soot carbon, sulfur, water content,and PCB concentration range. PCB concentrations determinedwith accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) using n-hexane/acetone (1:1, v/v) as organic solvents were comparedto Soxhlet extraction using toluene as organic solvent. Theresults indicated that sediments containing relatively lowamounts of organic and soot carbon can be quantitativelyextracted by ASE in 5 min with n-hexane/acetone (proposedin EPA Method 3545). However, for sediments withlarger amounts of carbon, the total amount of PCBs presentin the sample might be underestimated when using n-hexane/acetone. For these latter sediments, toluene seems toincrease the extraction efficiency in ASE.
|
