Determination of lewisite oxide in soil using solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography with flame photometric or mass spectrometric detection

A rapid, sensitive, and convenient method is described for determining Lewisite oxide in soil. Samples are initially fortified with phenylarsine oxide (surrogate), then both species are extracted using ascorbic acid solutions containing 1,3-propanedithiol (derivatizing reagent). The corresponding filtered supernatant is sampled using a solid-phase microextraction fiber. Collected analytes are thermally desorbed in a heated gas chromatographic inlet, separated using fused-silica capillary columns ("primary" and "confirmatory"), and detected with either a mass spectrometric (selected ion monitoring mode) or flame photometric (sulfur-selective mode) detector. Two independent statistically-unbiased procedures were used to evaluate the detection limit for Lewisite oxide; the values range between 0.1 and 0.5 microg g(-1) soil.