Speciation of Organotin Compounds with Ion Pair-Reversed Phase Chromatography Technique

Abstract

The usage of ion-pair reversed phase Chromatography (IP-RP) technique for speciation of dibutyltin
(DBT), tributyltin (TBT), and triphenyltin (TPhT) has been studied. These three species were able to
separate on an ion pair-reversed phase chromatographic column. The eluates were detected on line by
using hydride generation-quartz furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry (HG-QFAAS) method.
The eluent consisted of a mixture of methanol: water:acetic acid with a composition of 80:19:1,
containing 1 mol L-1 decane sulfonate acid as ion pairing reagent. The pH of the eluent was adjusted
with 1 mol L-1 H2SO4. The separation of all of the species at the above conditions was good, as shown
by the values of fundamental chromatographic parameters. The capacity factor (k') for DBT, TBT and
TPhT species were 0.27, 2.54 and 5.92 respectively. The resolution (Rs) values for DBT-TBT and
TBT-TPhT separation were 2.92 and 2.42 respectively, while the selectivity for DBT-TBT and TBTTPhT were 9.76 and 3.50 respectively. These data show the effectiveness of the developed
chromatographic system.