Citation:

MOMPLAISIR, G. AND M. H. HIATT. VOLATILE ORGANO-METALLOIDS IN BIO-SOLID MATERIALS: ANALYSIS BY VACUUM DISTILLATION-GC/MS. Presented at Third International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology, Austin, TX, August 06 - 09, 2007.

Impact/Purpose:

Provide state-of-the-science sampling, analysis, separation, and detection methods to allow rapid, accurate field and laboratory analyses of contaminated soils, sediments, biota, and groundwater to support Superfund clean-up decisions. Apply state-of-the-science methods in chemical analysis and data interpretation (e.g., mass spectral interpretation) to actual problems of OSWER, the Regions, and the States, in cooperation with the Las Vegas Technical Support Center as well as by direct contacts with Regional and State employees. Provide technical advice and guidance to OSWER using the environmental chemistry expertise (e.g., mass spectrometry, analytical methods development, clean-up methodology, inorganics, organometallics, volatile organics, non-volatile organics, semi-volatile organics, separation technologies, etc.) found within the branch.

Technical research support for various projects initiated either by Regions/Program Offices or ECB scientists. While these efforts will support the Regions and Program Offices, they cannot be predicted or planned in advance, and may serve multiple duty (e.g., solve real-world problems, serve to ground-truth analytical approaches that ECB is developing, transfer new technology). Many of the activities in this task support requests involving enforcement decisions and therefore are categorized as "environmental forensics".

Description:

An analytical method based on vacuum distillation-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (VD-GC-MS)

was developed for determining volatile organo-metalloid contaminants in bio-solid materials. Method

performance was evaluated for dimethylselenide (DMSe), dimethyldiselenide (DMDSe), diethylselenide

(DESe) and trimethylarsine (TMAs). The relative volatilities of these compounds in water were

calculated. TMAs was found to be completely removed from the aqueous matrix in a single distillation

cycle. The detection limits for the analytes using a 30-to-1 column split were 1-5 ng. The stability of the

compounds in air and water was studied as a function of time. TMAs was found to be stable in nitrogenpurged

water samples for more than 6 h, whereas an estimated 1% of DMDSe was converted to DMSe in

the same period, and 50% was converted to DMSe in 48 h. The analytical method was used to monitor the

formation of volatile organo-arsenic and -selenium compounds in chicken litter samples that were

incubated at room temperature for up to 30 days. After 48 h, TMAs was identified as the major volatile

arsenic species in non-sterilized litter from broiler chickens fed feed containing the veterinary drug

Roxarsone (3-nitro-4-hydroxyphenylarsonic acid). DMSe and low concentrations of DMDSe were

detected in samples 5 days and older. Sterilization of fresh litter prevented generation of methyl-arsines

and -selenides, indicating the generation route was biological.

Record Details: