Speciation and GC retention indices of some organotin compounds in water

Analytical methods have been developed for the quantitative determination of Bu4Sn, Bu3Sn+, Bu2Sn2+, BuSn3+, Me3BuSn, Me2Bu2Sn, MeBu3Sn, MeBuSn2+, Me2BuSn+ and MeBu2Sn+ in water. Organotin compounds are extracted from water with tropolone at 0.1 % in n‐pentane, derivatized with n‐pentylmagnesium bromide and determined by gas chromatography with flame photometric detection or flame ionization detection. Absolute detection limits are 0.05‐0.12 ng and 1.2‐13 ng as tin, respectively. The method was applied to the analysis of spiked tap‐water containing 0.3‐1000 ng cm−3 of each of the organotin compounds.