Automated sample clean-up and fraction of organochlorine pesticides in sediments using the SPE-GPC-VAP system.

This paper describes an automated sample clean-up and fraction method using the SPE-GPC-VAP system for the determination of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in sediments. The method is based on a simultaneous extraction/clean-up step to reduce analysis time and solvent consumption. The parameters of a solid-phase extraction procedure, a gel permeation chromatography procedure and an AccuVap procedure were optimized to obtain maximum recovery of the target analytes with minimum presence of matrix-interfering compounds. The detection limits ranged from 0.03 to 0.13 ng g(-1) and the recovery ranged from 50.05% to 104.39%. The relative standard deviation was lower than 19.34% when OCPs concentrations in sediments ranged from 1.25 to 125 ng g(-1).