Determination of trace fluoride in water samples by silylation and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis.

Abstract

Due to the ubiquity of fluorides and the small gap between a safe dose and a harmful one, it is necessary to develop a robust analytical method for determination of fluoride ions in various water samples with complex matrices. Silylation of the fluoride ion was carried out by treatment with hydrochloric acid and phenyldimethylchlorosilane at room temperature. The formed phenyldimethylfluorosilane was detected by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Under the optimized conditions, linearity in the analytical method ranged from 0.050 to 5.0 μg/mL for the fluoride ion with R2 >0.9999. Reasonable reproducibility was obtained with the intraday relative standard deviation (RSD) (N = 5) of 2.04% and interday RSD (N = 5) of 3.75% at the concentration of 0.10 μg/mL. The developed method has been successfully applied to determine the fluoride ion in real water samples, including waste water samples, with the recovery between 81.12% and 113.04%. A robust method for the determination of the fluoride ion has been developed by silylation with phenyldimethylchlorosilane and GC/MS analysis. The established method showed good anti-interference and precision, and it has been applied for determination of the fluoride ion in various water samples.