Type of the Paper (Article

Tributyltin (TBT) is one of the most toxic anthropogenic compounds introduced into the 9 marine environment. Despite its global ban in 2008, TBT is still a problem of great concern due to 10 its high affinity for particulate matter, providing a direct and potentially persistent route of entry 11 into benthic sediments. Bioremediation strategies may constitute an alternative approach to 12 conventional physicochemical methods, benefiting from the microorganism’s potential to 13 metabolize anthropogenic compounds. In this work, a simple, precise and accurate static headspace 14 gas chromatography method was developed to investigate the ability of TBT degrading microbes 15 in sedimentary microcosms over a period of 120 days. The proposed method was validated for 16 linearity, repeatability, accuracy, specificity, limit of detection and limit of quantification. The 17 method was subsequently successfully applied for the detection and quantification of TBT and 18 degrading compounds in sediment samples on day 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 of the experiment 19 employing the principles of green chemistry. On day 120 the concentration of TBT remaining in the 20 microcosms ranged between 91.91 ng/g wet wt for the least effective microbial inoculant to 52.73 21 ng/g wet wt for the most effective microbial inoculant from a stating concentration of 100 ng/g wet 22 wt. 23