Determination of chlordecone in soils by GC/MS

The objective of this study was to develop and characterize an extraction method for chlordecone determination in soils. An accelerated solvent extractor was found to be suitable for extracting chlordecone from soils, but a clean-up step was necessary to recover chlordecone from the hexane solution. Analysis was performed by GC/MS using a PTV injector with a large-volume injection. Validation of the method showed that calibration was linear from 0.23 to 5.3 mg L−1 (0.023–0.53 mg kg−1), and the method was repeatable and reproducible. The mean recovery was 79%. The specificity was acceptable from 1 to 25 mg kg−1. A limit of quantification of 1 mg kg−1 was attained.