Determination of 8 Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Water Samples by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Eight polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) of PCB 15, PCB 28, PCB 52, PCB 101, PCB 118, PCB 138, PCB 153 and PCB 180 in water samples were extracted by hexane, concentrated by evaporator and then determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The detection limits of the method for these PCBs were lower than 2.5 ng/L. The recoveries of the method for the pollutants in samples with both low and high PCBs concentrations were 88.5%~104.0% and 90.3%~102.0% with precisions of 3.5%~9.7% RSD (n=5) and 2.6%~8.3% RSD (n=5), respectively. The method provides the advantages of high sensitivity, good selectivity and is suitable for routine analysis of PCBs in water samples.