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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Extraction and Detection of Geosmin and 2-Methylisoborneol in Water and Fish using High-Capacity Sorptive Extraction Probes and GC-MS
Published on: July 3, 2025
Analysis of persistent organic pollutants in marine sediments using a novel microwave assisted solvent extraction and
Chanbasha Basheer1, Jeffrey Philip Obbard, Hian Kee Lee
1Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
Abstract:
A simple and novel analytical method for quantifying persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in marine sediments has been developed using microwave assisted solvent extraction (MASE) and liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) using hollow fibre membrane (HFM). POPs studied included twelve organochlorine pesticides (OCP) and eight polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners. MASE was used for the extraction of POPs from 1 g of sediment using 10 ml of ultrapure water at 600 W for 20 min at 80 degrees C. The extract was subsequently subjected to a single step LPME-HFM cleanup and enrichment procedure. Recovery varied between 73 and 111% for OCPs; and 86-110% for PCBs, and exceeded levels achieved for conventional multi-step Soxhlet extraction coupled with solid-phase extraction. The method detection limit for each POP analyte ranged from 0.07 to 0.70 ng g(-1), and peak areas were proportional to analyte concentrations in the range of 5-500 ng g(-1). Relative standard deviations of less than 20% was obtained, based on triplicate sample analysis. The optimized technique was successfully applied to POP analysis of marine sediments collected from the northeastern and southwestern areas of Singapore's coastal environment.

