A versatile method for the quantification of 100 SVOCs from various families: Application to indoor air, dust and bioaccessibility evaluation

Abstract

A method coupling automated thermal desorption (ATD) with in-tube derivatization and solid phase micro-extraction (SPME), with on-injector derivatization gas chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry (GC/MSMS) was developed and used for the simultaneous quantification of 100 semivolatile (SVOCs) pollutants (50 pesticides, 16 PAHs, 22 PCBs, 7 phthalates and 5 alkylphenols) in indoor air, indoor dust, and for bioaccessibility evaluation. Chemical compounds in indoor air were sampled on Tenax-TA passive samplers (PAS) exposed for 15 days, while dust was collected on silicon carbide (SiC©) foam using a custom made vacuum cleaner head. After sampling, Tenax tubes from PAS were introduced directly into a thermal desorption tube while dust was extracted using accelerated solvent extractor (ASE). Extract is then used to spike clean Tenax-TA tube that is then treated as a Tenax from PAS. The derivatization agent (MtBSTFA) and a mix of internal standards were added into the tubes before thermal desorption and analysis by GC/MSMS.The SPME technique was applied to extract the 100 SVOCs from the different tested bioaccessibility solutions (saliva, gastric, intestinal).This method permits the determination of 100 pollutants in a single run, including those requiring a derivatization step, with very low quantification and detection limits. Indeed, ATD-GC/MSMS technic presents very low LOD (0.002 to 0.17 ng) and LOQ (0.007 to 0.56 ng) values while SPME-GC/MSMS displays slightly higher LOD (0.044 to 12.3 ng) and LOQ (0.10 to 37.0 ng) ranges.