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

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 20-110mg/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 mu g/L, and converted sulfur mass per sediment mass was 1.88 x 10(-2) and 8.36 x 10(-3) mu g/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 wyell as linear responses over a wide concentration range.