Determination of phosphoric acid triesters in human plasma using solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography coupled to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Abstract

A simple and sensitive method for determination of phosphoric acid triesters at trace levels in human plasma sample is described. In this work, solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is employed as a sample preparation procedure for extraction and pre-concentration of alkyl and aryl phosphates followed by gas chromatography coupled to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (GC–ICP-MS) for phosphorus-specific and very sensitive determination of these compounds in human plasma. The detection limits from blood plasma were 50 ng L −1 (tripropyl phosphate), 17 ng L −1 (tributyl phosphate), 240 ng L −1 (tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate) and 24 ng L −1 (triphenyl phosphate). Sample preparation involves plasma deproteinization followed by direct immersion SPME with 65 μm poly(dimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene) fiber. Extraction was performed at 40 °C for 30 min and at pH 7.0 in 10 mM sodium carbonate buffer. The reported method, to our knowledge, describes the first application of SPME with element-specific detection for analysis of phosphoric acid esters. Application of the method to the plasma samples, previously stored in poly(vinyl chloride) plasma bags revealed the presence of triphenyl phosphate, which was further confirmed by SPME GC time-of-flight high-resolution mass spectrometry.