Organotin speciation in French brandies and wines by solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography—Pulsed flame photometric detection

An analytical method devoted to organotin compounds (OTC) determination in brandy and wine was developed. It is based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) of ethylated organotins. The following operating factors were examined: SPME mode/nature of fibre coating, sample volume/dilution, and sampling time. The optimisation work led to dilute the sample in an aqueous buffer (1/11, v/v ratio) in order to satisfactorily decrease the matrix effects due to competitive sorption of non-OTC species onto/into fibre coating. The optimised operating conditions consist of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coated fibre used in headspace mode for 30 min. In wines, the limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) ranged from 1 to 40 and 3 to 80 ng(Sn) L−1 respectively, according to the species. The analytical validation was made by evaluating the accuracy of OTC determination in spiked samples with various concentrations over the whole calibration range, i.e. from LOQ to 1000 ng(Sn) L−1. Recovery was around 80–110% and precision (relative standard deviation, RSD) was between 12% and 25%. Despite the presence of two chromatographic peaks corresponding to sulphur compounds during brandy analysis, the selectivity of the method is adequate. The analysis confirmed the analytical performances and applicability of the method to wine and brandy samples. The obtained results emphasise the contamination of brandy and wine by organotins, the storage in plastic container seeming to be confirmed as the main OTC source.