Analytical procedures for the determination of polychlorinated-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, and hexachlorobenzene in pentachlorophenol

A method for the determination of all polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) contained in production batches of pentachlorophenol (PCP) samples is presented. The method uses two sub-samples of the PCP sample to provide an effective dynamic range of 1:40,000,000. Following extraction of the samples and fractionation of the sample extracts, the extracts are analyzed by HRGC/HRMS, and the resulting data from both sub-samples are combined to generate the final data for each sample. Data from the analysis of 47 samples using this method are presented and show a ratio of concentrations of octachlorinated dibenzofuran (OCDF) to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorinated dibenzofuran (TCDF) of approximately 4,000,000:1. The results show that four congeners dominate the ITEQ, which has an average value of 634 μg kg−1 (429 μg kg−1 WHO 2005 TEQ) in those samples.