Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction Combined with Ultrahigh Performance Liquid ChromatographyTandem Mass Spectrometry for Determination of Organophosphate Esters in Aqueous Samples

Abstract EN

A new technique was established to identify eight organophosphate esters (OPEs) in this work.

It utilised dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction in combination with ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

The type and volume of extraction solvents, dispersion agent, and amount of NaCl were optimized.

The target analytes were detected in the range of 1.0–200 µg/L with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9982 to 0.9998, and the detection limits of the analytes were ranged from 0.02 to 0.07 µg/L ( S / N = 3 ) .

The feasibility of this method was demonstrated by identifying OPEs in aqueous samples that exhibited spiked recoveries, which ranged between 48.7% and 58.3% for triethyl phosphate (TEP) as well as between 85.9% and 113% for the other OPEs.

The precision was ranged from 3.2% to 9.3% ( n = 6 ), and the interprecision was ranged from 2.6% to 12.3% ( n = 5 ).

Only 2 of the 12 selected samples were tested to be positive for OPEs, and the total concentrations of OPEs in them were 1.1 and 1.6 µg/L, respectively.

This method was confirmed to be simple, fast, and accurate for identifying OPEs in aqueous samples.