A sensitive, reproducible, and interference-free method is presented for simultaneous determination of tri-, di- and monobutyltin species present in aqueous systems at tin concentrations of 0.01 - 5.0 ppm. The butyltin species are concentrated from HBr acidified aqueous solutions into an organic solvent by solvent extraction in the presence of a metal-coordinating ligand. Almost quantitative recoveries are achieved by solvent extraction using benzene, chloroform, or methylene chloride in the presence of 0.05% of tropolone. The butyltin species present in the organic extract are transformed into the corresponding butylmethyltin compounds. Bu(n)Sn-Me(4-n), and analyzed as such by a GC/MS procedure. By this procedure the solubilities of (Bu3Sn)2O, Bu2SnCl2, and BuSnCl3 in seawater at room temperature are determined to be 8-10, 6-8, and 9-10 ppm, respectively, and trace amounts of inorganic tin species in water are detected. The inorganic tin species present in the organic extract are butylated to tetrabutyltin, which is detected by GC/MS.
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Meinema et al. (1978) studied this question.