Studies on the dechlorination and detoxificaton of organochlorine compounds. I. PCBs and PCNs

In the analysis of organochlorines such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs), levels of, for example, PCB concentration are often expressed as a ‘total PCB’ value, using a straight GC pattern-matching technique with electron capture detection. Such methods provide little information about the identity of the individual components. In the present study, preliminary investigations using dechlorination with a NiCl₂/NaBH₄ catalyst indicated that the technique offered a comprehensive method for the analysis of PCBs and PCNs, as well as a method of detoxification of the ‘priority pollutants’ . This paper reports the use of capillary column GC-MS with an ion trap detector (ITD^TM) for the analysis of a number of PCBs and PCNs, including the commercially produced Aroclor 1254 and 1221, employing this dechlorination technique.