Isolation, separation, and concentration into an organic solvent are generally required prior to identification and quantitation of organic pollutants in water by gas chromatography or mass spectrometry. These operations can be simplified or improved by the use of XAD-resins (macroreticular resins) and by changes in solvent extraction procedures. XAD-2, 4, 7 and 8 and mixtures of these resins effectively extracted a broad range of individual industrial pollutants and mixtures typical of paper mill wastewaters, dissolved fuel oil, and textile dyes. Resin recovery efficiencies were typically 65-75% for individual compounds; direct chloroform extraction efficiency was 80%. Polyurethane foams were not effective for extracting these compounds. Chloroform is generally recommended over diethyl ether as an extraction solvent. Drying of chloroform extracts before evaporation was shown to be unnecessary. For typical industrial effluents, extract concentration to 10 ml with a Kuderna-Danish evaporator and to as low as 0.3 ml with a micro-Snyder column is the most quantitative procedure. Extraction with tetralin sometimes allows detection of nonpolar low-boiling pollutants that are usually obscured in gas chromatographic analysis by the solvent peak.

"June 1975." ROAP 16ADN Task 37; program element 1BA027. Report prepared by Southeast Environmental Research Laboratory, National Environmental Research Center, Athens, Georgia. Includes bibliographical references (pages 19-20).