Simultaneous determination of chlorinated organic compounds from environmental samples using gas chromatography coupled with a micro electron capture detector and micro-plasma atomic emission detector

Water and sediment samples were screened simultaneously for the presence of polychlorinated organic compounds using gas chromatography (GC) coupled with an micro electron capture detector (mu-ECD) and a newly developed helium plasma based on a micro-atomic emission detector (mu-AED). The GC column effluent was split 15:85 between two detectors. In this way, two chromatograms, one obtained by mu-ECD and another by mu-AED, were recorded simultaneously. alpha-, beta-hexachlorocyclohexane and p,p'-DDE were detected. RSDs of the monitoring results from the two detection methods were <20% for the three compounds. A detection limit of 8.5 pg and at least 3 orders of magnitude of linear range for μ-AED was observed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.