Development of an Analytical Method for White Phosphorus (P4) in Water and Sediment Using Solid-Phase Microextraction

Development of an Analytical Method for White Phosphorus (P4)

in Water and Sediment Using Solid-Phase Microextraction

MARIANNE E. WALSH, SUSAN TAYLOR AND PHILIP G. THORNE

Peppard 1994, Zhang et al. 1994). The technique

INTRODUCTION

has several advantages (fast, simple, precise, sen-

Analytical methods have been developed for

sitive), and requires no solvent (Arthur et al.

white phosphorus (P4) residues in sediment and

1992e). For this technique, a thin fused silica fiber

water (Walsh and Taylor 1993, Walsh 1995, USEPA

coated with a stationary phase is exposed to a sam-

1995). Both methods rely on solvent extraction

ple, either by immersion in a water or air sample

prior to gas chromatographic analysis. The extract-

or to headspace above an aqueous or solid sam-

ing solvents are isooctane and diethyl ether for

ple (Fig. 1). Analytes sorb to the stationary phase,

soils/sediments and water, respectively. The

then the fiber is transferred directly to a heated

method for soils/sediments has been performed

injection port of a gas chromatograph for thermal

successfully in field laboratories (Racine et al.

desorption and analysis. The method can be auto-

1993), but the safety hazards associated with di-

mated and an SPME autosampler is available com-

ethyl ether restrict the analysis of water samples

mercially (Arthur et al. 1992c, Berg 1993).

to laboratories with fume hoods. In this study, we

describe methods that minimize or eliminate the

use of organic solvents.

Plugger

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is

a new alternative to traditional tech-

niques for extracting volatile or semi-

volatile organics (Belardi and Pawl-

Barrel

iszyn 1989, Boyd-Boland et al. 1994,

Zhang et al. 1994). First developed to

Septum-piercing Needle

analyze for volatile chlorinated

organics, PCBs (polychlorinated G djustable Needle

uide/Depth Gauge

biphenyls) and BTEX (benzene, tolu-

Fiber Attachment Tubing

ene, ethylbenzene, xylene) in water

(Arthur and Pawliszyn 1990; Arthur

et al. 1992a, b, d; Potter and Pawlis-

zyn 1992, 1994; Buchholz and Pawl-

iszyn 1993), the method has been

Coated Fused Silica Fiber

successfully used for a wide variety

of analytes in environmental, food

and pharmaceutical matrices (Haw-

thorne et al. 1992, Otu and Pawliszyn

1993, Buchholz and Pawliszyn 1994,

Horng and Huang 1994, Yang and

Figure 1. SPME device.