Extraction and preconcentration of 17α-ethynylestradiol as an endocrine-disrupting agent from environmental water samples by a modified magnetic nanosorbent

Abstract

A rapid, simple and efficient procedure is demonstrated for extraction and determination of an endocrine-disrupting compound, synthetic estrogen, 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2), in water and wastewater samples via magnetic solid-phase extraction followed by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with UV detection. The analytical method is based on extraction of EE2 by dispersing magnetic nanoparticles in sample solution for a desired time and then eluting the analytes with an appropriate solvent. The nanoparticles were modified with a hydrophobic material by self-assembling an organosulfur compound (bis-(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)-dithiophosphinic acid) onto the silver-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles as sorbent. The effects of several parameters, such as amount of sorbent, sample volume, extraction time, ionic strength and desorption conditions, were examined to obtain better efficiency. The optimized methodology exhibited a good linearity between 0.5 and 100 μg L−1 with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.3 μg L−1, and a preconcentration factor of 245 with intra- and inter-day precisions (relative standard deviations) 2.4 and 3.2 %, respectively. The developed method was successfully applied for extraction and determination of EE2 in different real water samples including river water, surface water and influent and effluent of a wastewater treatment plant, and satisfactory results were achieved. The method, which provides a good preconcentration factor, a low LOD and low consumption of the organic solvent, presents a rapid, simple and efficient procedure for determining EE2 in aqueous samples.