Supercritical fluid extraction of pcbs from human adipose tissue for HRGC/LRMS analysis

Supercritical fluid. extraction (SFE) of 36 PCBs from human adipose is presented. Selective extraction of the PCBs is achieved using supercritical CO2 with a density of 0.9 g/ml (281 bar) at 40°C and with AlOx as a fat retainer. Compared to the traditional liquid extraction method followed by further sample clean up, SFE is not only faster (2 hours compared to three days) but also utilises lower amounts of organic solvents (4 ml compared to over 500 ml). The recoveries of 7 added 13C labelled PCBs are 83–106%. The repeatability in the analysis of 36 PCBs in 6 identical samples is excellent, with an average R.S.D. of less than 10%.