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Determination of Elemental Sulfur in the Presence of Anaerobic Sediments by Extraction Procedure Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

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Abstract

Elemental sulfur is the most commonly found form of sulfur in anaerobic sediments. Accurate determination of elemental sulfur is the key step to know physical chemistry and biogeochemical processes in the sediments. A novel method was developed for the analysis of elemental sulfur using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a C18 column. The procedure of determination of elemental sulfur concentrations from 0.1 to 100 mg/g (on a basis of the dry weight of sediment) is based on the direct injection of acetone extracts of sediments into a chromatographic column. The linearity range of 20–110 mg/L showed an excellent linearity of response (r = 0.999). The limit of detection and limit of quantitation for elemental sulfur were 9.41 and 4.18 μg/L, and converted sulfur mass per sediment mass was 1.88 × 10−2 and 8.36 × 10−3 μg/kg. Besides, a repetitive experiment (ten times) was carried out and the average chromatographic peak area was 141.47 mg L−1. The sulfur concentration in the solution used for the determination of standard deviation and relative standard deviation was 1.02 and 0.727%, respectively. The average recovery ranges between 98 and 100%. The quantitation of elemental sulfur in sediment samples from anaerobic digestion reactor is obvious, and the average concentration of elemental sulfur on the basis of the dry weight of the sediment is 5.24 mg/g. The method was sensitive and exhibited good signal-to-noise ratio, as well as linear responses over a wide concentration range.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Nanomineralogy and Environmental Material, School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, China

    Dong Chen, Wei Huang, Haibo Liu & Tianhu Chen

Authors
  1. Dong Chen
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  2. Wei Huang
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  3. Haibo Liu
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  4. Tianhu Chen
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Correspondence to Tianhu Chen.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Science Foundation of China (No. 41130206 and No. 41202021) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. JZ2014HGQC0139).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Chen, D., Huang, W., Liu, H. et al. Determination of Elemental Sulfur in the Presence of Anaerobic Sediments by Extraction Procedure Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography. Water Air Soil Pollut 228, 167 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3358-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3358-9

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