Supercritical fluid extraction of butyltin compounds from sediment

An investigation of the extraction recovery of butyltin species in sediment by supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is presented. Satisfactory recoveries for TBT (93.5 ± 3.7%) and DBT (91.5 ± 3%) are achieved. The recovery for MBT from spiked sediment (62 ± 5.1%) is the highest value so far achieved by the SFE technique. A comparison of the supercritical fluid extraction with the improved tropolone solvent extraction technique for the butyltin species is presented. The results of the analysis of a reference sediment (PACS-1) are also given.