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A selected ion monitoring assay for tributyltin and its degradation products
Author(s) -
Greaves J.,
Unger M. A.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
biomedical and environmental mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9888
pISSN - 0887-6134
DOI - 10.1002/bms.1200151009
Subject(s) - tributyltin , chemistry , biocide , environmental chemistry , detection limit , chromatography , selected ion monitoring , gas chromatography , chemical ionization , biofouling , mass spectrometry , gas chromatography–mass spectrometry , ion , ionization , organic chemistry , membrane , biochemistry
Tributyltin (TBT) is a biocide which has been shown to enter the aquatic environment by release from antifouling paints. TBT is acutely toxic to some marine organisms at concentrations near 1 μg I −1 and physiological changes may occur at low nanogram per liter concentrations. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) (methane chemical ionization) has been used for identification (full scanning) and quantification (selected ion monitoring) of TBT, dibutyltin (DBT) and monobutyltin (MBT). The butyltins were extracted from environmental water samples with hexane/0.2% tropolone and derivatized with hexyl magnesium bromide to form hexylbutyltins. Selected ion monitoring was at m / z 319 (TBT) and m / z 347 (DBT, MBT and tripentyltin, the internal standard). Calibration curves prepared in natural water were linear and detection limits were <2 ng I −1 , GC/MS and GC with flame photometric detection were compared as quantification methods for environmental samples and were shown to give similar results at the low nanogram per liter levels.