Congener specific analysis of polychlorinated terphenyls

In order to identify and to quantify polychlorinated terphenyls (PCT) in environmental matrices, the chromatographic behavior of coplanar and non-coplanar congeners was evaluated. A mixture of 16 single PCT congeners was used for method development. Four of these compounds were synthesized for the first time by SUZUKI-coupling reaction. These were p-PCT (2,2″,6,6″-tetrachloro-, 2′,3,3″,4,4″,5′,-hexachloro-, 2′,3,3″,5,5′,5″-hexachloro-) and m-PCT (2,2″,3,3″,5,5″-hexachloro-). They were characterized by NMR (1H, 13C) spectroscopy. By means of the new column chromatographic clean-up reported here, a good matrix removal and the separation of the coplanar PCT congeners from the non-coplanar ones was obtained. The recovery rates for all congeners were good for the PCT in different test matrices like fat, charcoal, and soil. The quality of the clean-up, the separation and the recovery rates were determined by GC/MS analysis. The method was applied for the first time to a real sample from a fire accident, where different PCT, obviously formed during the combustion process, were found. The conclusion is drawn that this method is suitable for the analysis of PCT in different environmental samples.