3546-1Draft Revision 0September 1999Pre-release v ersion - This method has NOT been released by OSW as part of Update IVMETHOD 3546MICROWAVE EXTRACTION1.0SCOPE AND APPLICATION 1.1Method 3546 is a procedure for extracting water insoluble or slightly water soluble organic compounds from soils, clays, sediments, sludges, and solid wastes. The method wasdeveloped and validated on commercially-available solvent extraction systems. The procedureuses microwave energy to produce elevated temperature and pressure conditions (i.e., 100 -115EC and 50 - 175 psi) in a closed vessel containing the sample and organic solvent(s) toachieve analyte recoveries equivalent to those from Soxhlet extraction (Method 3540), usingless solvent and taking significantly less time than the Soxhlet procedure. Other systems andother types of vessels may be used, provided that the analyst can demonstrate appropriateperformance for a specific application.1.2This method is applicable to the extraction of semivolatile organic compounds,organophosphorus pesticides, organochlorine pesticides, chlorinated herbicides, phenoxyacidherbicides, substituted phenols, PCBs, and PCDDs/PCDFs, which may then be analyzed by avariety of chromatographic procedures. The method may also be applicable for the extractionof additional target analytes, provided that the analyst demonstrates adequate performance forthe intended application (see Method 3500 and Chapter Two).1.3This method has been validated for solid matrices containing 50 to 10,000 µg/kgof semivolatile organic compounds, 250 to 2,500 µg/kg of organophosphorus pesticides, 10 to5,000 µg/kg of organochlorine pesticides and chlorinated herbicides, 50 to 2,500 µg/kg ofsubstituted phenols, 100 to 5,000 µg/kg of phenoxyacid herbici...
