Ultrasonic treatment of molluscan tissue for organotin speciation

Abstract

A method is described for the extraction of nanogram amounts of mono-, di- and tributyltin compounds from bivalves. The procedure is based on treatment of lyophilized samples with 0.08% m/v tropolone solution in methanol in successive sonication steps. The method was applied to oyster and cockle samples from southwest Spain and the results compared favourably with those given by typical leaching methods based on the use of acid reagents, owing to the absence of degradation processes.