Screening of anthropogenic compounds in polluted sediments and soils by flash evaporation/pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

The use of flash evaporation and pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry as a fast screening procedure for anthropogenic substances in environmental samples is demonstrated by the analysis of polluted soil and sediment samples. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, haloorganics, aliphatic hydrocarbons, heteroaromatics, elemental sulfur, cyanides, and pyrolysis products of synthetic polymers are among the anthropogenic substances that can be readily detected by this method in one analysis. Elimination of wet chemical sample preparation enables a complete analysis to be performed and data to be quickly analyzed. The detection limits are in the low part-per-million range using mass spectrometric detection. Alternatively, detection of compounds can be achieved by all common gas chromatography detectors (flame ionization detector, electron capture detector, and flame photometric detector), and detection limits are determined by the method of detection employed.