Determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers at trace levels in environmental waters using hollow-fiber microporous membrane liquid–liquid extraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Abstract

In this study, we present a simple and easy-to-use extraction method that is based on a hollow-fiber microporous membrane liquid–liquid extraction (HF-MMLLE), as an extraction technique, followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to determine a group of brominated flame retardants (BFRs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), at trace levels in aqueous samples. The hollow-fiber membrane (HF) filled with organic solvent was immersed into the aqueous sample, spiked with the analytes at ng l −1 level, and stirred for 60 min. The proposed method could attain enrichment factors ( E e) up to 5200 times, after optimising parameters, such as organic solvent, stirring speed and extraction time, that affect the extraction. The HF-MMLLE–GC–MS method was successfully applied to the extraction of PBDEs from tap, river and leachate water samples with spike recoveries ranging from 85% to 110%. The method validation with reagent and leachate water samples provided good linearity, detection limits of 1.1 ng l −1 or lower, both in reagent and leachate water, as well as satisfactory precision in terms of repeatability and reproducibility with values of % relative standard deviation (%RSD) lower than 8.6 and 16.9, respectively.