Wastewater analysis for volatile organic sulfides using purge-and-trap with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

This paper presented a modified method for the analysis of volatile organic sulfides (VOS) simultaneously with volatile organic compounds (VOC) in wastewater using purge-and-trap with gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry. Calibration standards were prepared using filtered and nitrogen-purged VOS-free wastewater, acidified to pH 1.4. Samples were also acidified to pH 1.4. This approach minimized the oxidation of methanethiol to dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), which hampered the liquid-phase analysis of VOS. Compounds were concentrated from the liquid phase, and automated analyses were performed without additional equipment, other than that required for routine wastewater VOC analysis. The linear range was 5 to 500 microg/L, with r2 > or = 0.99. The average recovery from replicate analyses of spiked samples was 81 +/- 0.5% for methanethiol, 100 +/- 1.5% fordimethyl sulfide (DMS), and 92 +/- 1.5% for DMDS. Method detection limits were 4.8, 2.8, and 1.2 microg/L for methanethiol, DMS, and DMDS, respectively. The relative percent differences were between 0 and 8%.