Recovery studies of volatile organics in sediments using purge/trap methods

Modifications of the purge-and-trap method have been used to analyze soils, sludges, and sediments without thorough examination of compound and matrix effects. Experiments in this study were performed to examine the effect of sediment type, analyte, and conductivity of the desorbing solution on the recovery of the purge-and-trap method. Only the type of compound was shown to affect the recovery of the method. Overall recoveries for sorbed compounds on three different sediments were 38% for chloroform, 48% for trichloroethylene, and 54% for chlorobenzene.