ASTM D5369-93(2008)e1

This practice provides a general procedure for the solvent extraction of organics from soils, sediments, sludges, and fine-grained solid wastes. It may be used as the initial step in the solvent extraction of organic constituents from waste materials for the purpose of quantifying extractable organic compounds. When the appropriate extraction solvent is used, the procedure can be applied to the determination of the total solvent extractable content (TSEC) of the sample. The extraction of nonvolatile or semivolatile organic compounds from the above solid waste should use solvents listed in Table 1 or SW846 Method 3540.

The detection limit, linear concentration range, and sensitivity of the method for specific organic compound analysis will depend upon the method used for instrumental analysis and will also depend upon the sample clean-up and solvent concentration methods used. Typical detection limits that can be achieved for GC or GC/MS are in the parts per million and sub-parts per million range.

The method detection limit can be adjusted by varying the volume of extract used and by additional sample clean-up prior to analysis.

Soxhlet extraction has an advantage when analyzing solid waste and soil/waste mixtures which form emulsions with more rigorous solvent mixing extraction techniques.

TABLE 1 Selected Applications of Soxhlet Extraction for Extraction of Organic Constituents from Solid Matrices

^A The boldface numbers in parentheses refer to the list of references at the end of this practice.

1.1 This practice describes standard procedures for extracting nonvolatile and semivolatile organic compounds from solids such as soils, sediments, sludges, and granular wastes using Soxhlet extraction.

1.1.1 The sample must be suitable for being mixed with the sample drying agent, sodium sulfate or magnesium sulfate, to provide drying of all sample surfaces.

1.2 This practice, when used in conjunction with Test Method D 5368 is applicable to the determination of the total solvent extractable content (TSEC) of a soil, sediment, sludge, or granular solid waste and depends upon the solvent chosen for extraction.

1.3 This practice is limited to solvents having boiling points below the boiling point of water at ambient pressure.

1.4 The solvent extract obtained by this practice may be analyzed for total or specific nonvolatile and semivolatile organic compounds but may require sample clean-up procedures prior to specific compound analysis.

1.4.1 This practice provides sample extracts suitable for analysis by various techniques such as gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC/FID) or gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (GC/MS).

1.5 This practice is recommended only for solid samples that can pass through a 10-mesh sieve (approximately 2-mm openings), or are less than 2 mm in thickness.

1.6 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety problems, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use. For specific precautions see Section 9.