Organolead speciation in environmental samples: a review

Degradation of alkyllead compounds to inorganic lead in contaminated soil

In glass columns with sandy soil from a former antiknocking agents factory hydrophobic tetraalkyllead was transformed in oxygen-saturated water to inorganic lead. Up to 324 mg l(-1) trialkyllead, but only very little dialkyllead accumulated. After 740 days 49.1+/-6.7% of the organic lead was converted to inorganic lead. Conversion of hydrocarbons was 39.6+/-5.1%. To reduce toxicity of high trialkyllead concentrations the water of soil columns was replaced by tap water after 450d. Trialkyllead in the new water increased again to more than 150 mg l(-1). If the alkyllead-containing water from these columns was diluted to concentrations of alkyllead compounds that were found in the groundwater after air injection (total alkyllead<10 mg l(-1)) and used as a source of alkyllead compounds in columns with non-contaminated sandy soil, elimination of tetra-, tri- and dialkyllead compounds followed first-order kinetics. In the soil 85.8-93.6% of the alkyllead dissappeared in only 170 days with 51% being converted to inorganic lead. This makes in situ remediation reasonable.

A new lead(II)-selective PVC-coated graphite rod electrode based on a Schiff base complex

A new lead(II)-selective electrode has been developed based on bis(acetylacetone)-p-phenylenediamine-lead(II) [LPb(NO3)2]H2O complex ionophore as a sensing material, dioctylphthalate (DOP) as a solvent mediator and PVC as a matrix. This electrode exhibits a linear Nernstian response over the concentration range of 1 x 10(-5)-1 x 10(-1) mol l(-1) of Pb(II) cation, with a cationic calibration slope of 30.0 +/- 0.2 mV/concentration decade and a detection limit of 2 x 10(-6) mol l(-1) (0.40 ppm). It has a fast response time and can be used for a period of 2 months without any divergence in potentials. The proposed electrode reveals a good selectivity for Pb(II) over a wide variety of other tested cations and could be used in the pH range of 4-8. It was successfully used for direct determination of Pb(II) concentration in some samples. The obtained results show a good agreement with those obtained by an atomic absorption spectrometric method. The average recovery obtained is 96.5 +/- 0.5% with standard deviation of 1.2% (n = 8).