USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

John P Testa, Jr

Carol A Dooley

Stable isotope-labelled tetra-n-butyl(124)tin was synthesized by the reaction of n-butylmagnesium bromide with .sup.124 SnCl.sub.4 and tri-n-butyltin bromide was synthesized by bromine cleavage of the tetraalkyltin. The tri-n-butyl(124)tin compound labelled with the stable isotope .sup.124 Sn is useable in environmental, chemical and biological applications to determine the fate, uptake and metabolism of tributyltin compounds. This determination is made by tracing the chemical, biological and physical processes by using gas chromatography(GC) and electron impact low resolution mass spectrometry(MS). The simplified spectra of the isotopically enriched compounds leads to a twofold increase in detection sensitivity by the GC and MS techniques.

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Oklahoma City, OK, United States of America

John P Testa, Jr