Qualitative screening for policyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles

There is increasing interest in isolation, identification and quantification of polyaromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASH) in view of their importance in environmental forensics, toxicology, geochemistry, etc. Although EU regulations are still in process for this class of compounds, the mutagenic and carcinogenic effects of some PASH compounds determined a major analytical development, all efforts being conducted to a higher level of interest of monitoring water resources and possible soil contamination. Over the past decade, gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry was a powerful tool for characterization of PASH compounds in environmental samples. To be able to identify possible water and soil contamination with PASH compounds, a new method was necessary to be developed, to have the opportunity to take action and promote a new step in Romanian environmental protection. For this purpose, we developed a GCMS method using a low resolution mass spectrometer for identification and quantification of some PASH compounds including phenanothro[3,4b]thiophene with mutagenic effect J.Heterocycl.Chem.17(1980)1259).