A
novel sample extractio
n tech
nique for polychlori
natedbiphe
nyls (PCBs) a
nd orga
nochlori
ne pesticides (OCPs)a
nalysis usi
ng microwave-heati
ng device is developed. I
nthis study, microwave-assisted extractio
n (MAE) a
ndsteam distillatio
n tech
niques were combi
ned. Desorptio
nof the a
natytes from solid matrixes was accelerated withwater vapor which was ge
nerated by microwave irradiatio
n. A sample holder i
n a commercial microwave extractio
n cell kept the sample from direct co
ntact with theorga
nic solve
nt for a
nalytes trappi
ng duri
ng the treatme
ntprocess. Therefore, relatively clea
n extracts were obtai
nedwith small amou
nt of solve
nts. Without a
ny clea
nup steps,the obtai
ned extract could be a
nalyzed with gas chromatograph/mass spectrometers (GC/MS). Six PCB co
nge
ners(PCB15, 28, 70, 101, 180, 194, 209) a
nd three OCPs(
![](/images/gifchars/gamma.gif)
-HCH, 4,4'-DDE, 4,4'-DDD) i
n two mari
ne sedime
ntsamples (a sedime
nt collected from a bay of KyusyuIsla
nd, Japa
n, a
nd a certified refere
nce material NISTSRM1944) were a
nalyzed by usi
ng this microwave-assisted steam distillatio
n (
MASD) tech
nique a
nd a
notherextractio
n method (exhaustive steam distillatio
n, MAE,a
nd Soxhlet extractio
n); a
nd compariso
ns of the resultsare show
n i
n this report. Although recovery yields ofhighly chlori
nated biphe
nyls (PCB180, 194, 209) a
ndrelatively polar OCPs (
![](/images/gifchars/gamma.gif)
-HCH, 4,4'-DDD) were low (30-60%) compared with other a
nalytes (PCB15, 28, 70, 101,4,4'-DDE; recovery, 80-100%), use of isotope labeledi
nter
nal sta
ndards for the MASD tech
nique gave comparable results with the values obtai
ned by other extractio
nmethods a
nd the certified values i
n the samples.