Ronald V. Emmons

It is important to develop analytical methods to detect crude MCHM components in environmental water samples. This article describes two microextractive methods based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) in fibre format and thin film microextraction (TFME) that were developed and validated for 4-MCHM and other constituents of crude MCHM.

Crude (4-methylcyclohexyl)methanol (MCHM) is a chemical contaminant that must be monitored in fresh water environments, because of significant health risks to surrounding human populations. A new method for MCHM analysis was developed using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and thin film microextraction (TFME) combined with GC–MS. Both methods achieved limits of quantitation lower than standard methods using SPE.