Supercritical fluid extraction of polyhalogenated pollutants from aquaculture and marine environmental samples: a review

This article focuses on the state-of-the-art in sample preparation using supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), to monitor the content of polyhalogenated pollutants in aquaculture and marine environmental samples. Marine sediments and biological applications, including several types of samples matrices (fish, shellfish, seaweed and fish feed) and analyte groups (polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (PCDD)/Fs and organochlorinated pesticide (OCPs)) are discussed with respect to SFE use and optimisation of conditions. We also discuss the great analytical potential of SFE, the integration of the extraction and clean-up steps for rapid sample processing justifying its use for routine work. The most recent SFE applications to the determination of these pollutants in marine environmental (biota and sediment) samples, published in the last 15 years, are reviewed.