Abstract
The development and performance of a competitive indirect immunoassay for the quantitative measurement of polychlorinated biphenyl compounds in insulating oils is presented. Reagent preparation and the assay characterisation, optimisation and validation steps are described. The dynamic range of the assay for Aroclors 1254 and 1260 in methanol was $50-800 {\mu}g\;ml^{-1}$ with $50\%$ signal inhibition values of 217 and $ 212 {\mu}g\;ml^{-1}$ respectively. Impending legislation in the UK is likely to decree that oils containing $ >50 {\mu}g\;ml^{-1}$ PCB be considered contaminated. Assay sensitivity increased with the degree of PCB chlorination. The assay of structurally related compounds of environmental concern yielded cross-reactivity values of under $0.6\%$. The immunoassay proved reliable for the analysis of transformer oils containing $>70{\mu}g\;ml^{-1}$ PCB, but over-estimated PCB levels in oils containing $<20{\mu}g\;ml^{-1}$ of the analyte with the oils requiring pre-treatment using either solid-phase extraction techniques or washing with KOH-ethanol/sulphuric acid to remove matrix interferents. The analytical performance of the assay was compared against a commercially available semi-quantitative immunoassay kit for PCBs in soil and water.