Development and application of immunoaffinity chromatography for coplanar PCBs in soil and sediment

An immunoaffinity chromatography (IAC) column was developed as a simple cleanup procedure for preparing environmental samples for analysis of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Soil and sediment samples were prepared using pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), followed by the IAC cleanup, with detection by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Quantitative recoveries (84–130%) of PCB-126 were obtained in fortified sediment and soil samples using the PLE/IAC/ELISA method. These results demonstrated that the IAC procedure effectively removed interferences from the soil and sediment matrices. The IAC column could be reused more than 20 times with no change in performance with 99.9% methanol/0.1% Triton X-100 as the elution solvent. Results of 17 soil and sediment samples prepared by PLE/IAC/ELISA correlated well with those obtained from a conventional multi-step cleanup with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry detection.

► We examine a tandem bioanalytical method for coplanar PCB determination.
► Pressurized liquid extraction/immunoaffinity cleanup and ELISA detection for PCBs.
► Tandem bioanalytical method (PLE/IAC/ELISA) for PCB detection in soil and sediment.
► Bioanalytical methods provide advantages for environmental monitoring.