Fundamentals of Sample Preparation for Environmental Analysis - Fundamentals of Environmental Sampling and Analysis - page 159

Chapter 7

Fundamentals of Sample
Preparation for
Environmental Analysis

7.1 OVERVIEW ON SAMPLE PREPARATION
7.2 SAMPLE PREPARATION FOR METAL ANALYSIS

7.3 EXTRACTION FOR SVOC AND NON-VOC FROM LIQUID OR SOLID
SAMPLES

7.4 POST-EXTRACTION CLEAN-UP OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS

7.5 DERIVATIZATION OF NON-VOC FOR GAS PHASE ANALYSIS

7.6 SAMPLE PREPARATION FOR VOC, AIR AND STACK GAS EMISSION

REFERENCES

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS

Sample preparation is the step after samples have been collected and preserved but
before samples are introduced into instrument for further analysis. Very rarely can
environmental samples be directly injected into instrument without any pretreat-
ment. Sample preparation is a very important part of the sample measurement
process and should not be underestimated. It is often the most labor-intensive and
time-consuming fraction, a bottleneck, for the entire measurement process. The
purpose of this chapter is to introduce the principles of sample preparation
techniques, commonly used in trace analysis. The techniques introduced in this
chapter cover main categories of environmental contaminants, including digestion
for metals, extraction and post-extraction clean-up for SVOCs, derivatization for
non-VOCs, and preparation for VOC and air samples. For brevity, those particular
and recently evolved sample preparation techniques are omitted. For example, there
are new sample preparation techniques developed recently that tend to be faster and