C. Crescenzi, A. Corcia, A. Marcomini
Aug 28, 1997
Citations
1
Influential Citations
23
Citations
Journal
Environmental Science & Technology
Abstract
Poly(ethylene glycols) (PEGs) and related mono- and dicarboxylated forms constitute one of the most abundant classes of contaminants in natural waters. Because of the lack of efficient analytical methods, only one study has been devoted to estimate levels of these analytes in some river waters. The present method involves analyte extraction from 50 mL of raw sewage, 100 mL of treated sewage, 500 mL of river water and seawater, and 2000 mL of groundwater by a 0.5-g Carbograph 4 cartridge. Isolation of acidic analytes from co-extracted neutral ones was accomplished by differential elution. During removal of the HCl-acidified CH2Cl2/CH3OH eluent mixture, carboxylated PEGs were purposely allowed to convert into their methyl esters. This offered the advantage of analyzing for all the species of interest using the same instrumental arrange ment. Extracts were analyzed by liquid chromatography/electrospray/mass spectrometry operated in the positive-ion mode. For species with ethoxy chain lengths ≥4, analyte reco...