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Tenax ® extraction as a tool to evaluate the availability of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, ddt, and ddt metabolites in sediments
Author(s) -
de la Cal Agustina,
Eljarrat Ethel,
Grotenhuis Tim,
Barcelo Damià
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1897/07-513.1
Subject(s) - tenax , polybrominated diphenyl ethers , fraction (chemistry) , environmental chemistry , chemistry , extraction (chemistry) , sediment , desorption , polybrominated biphenyls , pollutant , solid phase extraction , diphenyl ether , tetrabromobisphenol a , chromatography , gas chromatography , organic chemistry , adsorption , geology , fire retardant , paleontology
Solid‐phase extraction with Tenax ® is one of the most used methods for determining the fraction of a pollutant that desorbs rapidly from sediment and thus is available for living beings. In the present study, this technique has been applied to sediment contaminated in the laboratory with polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, dichlorodifenyldichloroethylene, and dichlorodifenyldichloroethane (generically, DDXs). The amount of chemical retained in sediment during the time of the experiment fit well with a three‐phase exponential desorption model. The ratios between the rapidly desorbing fraction and the fraction desorbed during a fixed time (6 or 24 h) were calculated. The fraction desorbed in 6 h was lower than the rapidly desorbing fraction for most of PBDEs, whereas the fraction desorbed in 24 h exceeded the rapidly desorbing fraction for both groups of compounds. However, variability of these data suggests, when possible, a long time measure of desorption in order to achieve a more accurate estimation. Both the extent and the velocity of desorption were inversely related with the bromination degree and, consistently, with hydrophobicity and molecular size. In this way, low brominated PBDEs and DDXs showed a high availability relative to high brominated PBDEs.