Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Environmental Chemical Analysis Method Optimization And Application To Northwest Cuban Marine Sediment, Thea R. Bartlett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A method for gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode has been optimized to quantify 250 compounds of a variety of compound classes such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), oxidized PAHs, organochlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, biomarkers (hopanes, steranes, tri-aromatic steroids, and fecal sterols), aliphatic hydrocarbons, and plastic additives. This method was validated based on available QA/QC standards using several environmental samples, both sediment and biota, and standard reference materials. This contaminant-focused method can be used as a forensic geochemistry tool to evaluate oil contamination and other contaminant histories in future research studies. When applied to …