Determination of tributyltin ions in estuarine waters by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection using morin in a micellar solution

Abstract

A procedure is described for the determination of tributyltin ions (TBT) in estuarine waters. TBT was quantitatively retained from 100–500 ml of sample on a 4 cm long ODS column. After washing off the salts with 20 ml of distilled water the ODS column was back-flushed with methanol-water (80 + 20) containing 0.15 M ammonium acetate, on to a 25 cm long Partisil SCX analytical column. The eluent from the column (1 ml min^–1) was mixed with a fluorimetric reagent (acetic acid, 0.01 M; morin, 0.0025%m/V; Triton X-100, 0.7%m/V)(2.5 ml min^–1) for detection at 534 nm with excitation at 408 nm. The detection limit (2σ) is 16 ng of TBT (as Sn). The method has been applied to some local estuarine samples.