Simultaneous determination of C4-C9 alkylphenols and bisphenol A in environmental water at the Yellow River Estuary Area in China by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Abstract

A liquid-liquid extraction combined with derivatization and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method was developed for the rapid determination of C4-C9 alkylphenols (4-tert-butylphenol, 4-n-butylphenol, 4-n-pentylphenol, 4-n-hexylphenol, 4-n-heptylphenol, 4-n-octylphenol, 4-tert-octylphenol, 4-n-nonylphenol and 4-nonylphenol) and bisphenol A in the environmental water. The extraction solvent, extraction time, solvent volume, acidity, salt content and the distillation degree were optimized. After drying and dehydration, the extract was derivatized, detected by GC-MS and quantified by internal standard method. After the dehydration, the extract was derivatized with BSTFA, detected by GC-MS and quantified by internal standard method. The results showed that the relative standard deviations of the relative response factors of the target compounds were less than 20%, the method detection limits were 0.002 µg/Lཞ0.006 µg/L, the relative standard deviations of the three spiked levels were 0.67%ཞ13.7%, and the average recoveries of the actual water samples were 68.0%ཞ122%. The method precision and accuracy were good. The method is simple, rapid, accurate, stable and reliable, which is suitable for the detection of target in water. The contents of C4-C9 alkylphenols and bisphenol A in groundwater, surface water, sewage, waste water and sea water samples in Dongying City located at the Yellow River Estuary were determined by this method. The results showed that the contents of 4-nonylphenol and bisphenol A in these samples were lower than the home and abroad requirements.