Determination of 16 phthalate esters in water by automatic solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometer coupled with stable isotope internal standard

  Objective  To establish a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) method with solid-phase extraction and stable isotope internal standard for the detection of 16 phthalate esters (PAEs) in water samples.

  Methods  Four kinds of one liter water sample (hemodialysis water, ground water, tape water, and bottled underground water) were collected in a hospital, Min River, a residential house, and a super market in Fuzhou city of Fujian province; between January and Feburary 2016, and then the PAEs in the sample were detected with GC-MS. The samples were quantified with internal standard method and the samples were also spiked at low, medium and high levels to evaluate recovery rate and relative standard deviation (RSD) of the assays.

  Results  PAEs, including diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) ,were detected in the 4 kinds of water samples with the concentrations ranging from 0.041 μg/L – 0.843 μg/L. The method detection limits were 0.005 μg/L – 0.017 μg/L and the limits of quantitation were 0.015 μg/L – 0.051 μg/L. The recoveries of 3 spiked concentrations in 4 kinds of water were 74.0% – 118.4% and the RSD was 1.1% – 20.0%.

  Conclusion  The method overcomes shortcoming of manual solid-phase extraction, and is of high efficiency, good accuracy, stability and practicability, could be used in detection of PAEs in water samples.