New low viscous hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents for the ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction of endocrine-disrupting phenols in water, milk and beverage

Abstract

In the present work, several new hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents (HDESs) were prepared with quaternary ammonium salts as hydrogen bond acceptors (HBAs) and salicylate esters as hydrogen bond donors (HBDs). Then, the obtained HDESs were used as extraction solvents to establish an ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction method combined with high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection technique for the determination of four endocrine-disrupting phenols (EDPs) compounds. One of the obtained HDESs composed of tetrabutylammonium chloride (N4444Cl) and methyl salicylate possessed a viscosity of 89.28 mPa•s lower than most reported ionic HDESs (>200 mPa•s), and the low viscous HDES was selected as the optimal extraction solvent. Several key parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were investigated, including the type and volume of HDES, ultrasound time, sample solution pH and salt addition. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the proposed method had good coefficients of determination (R2 > 0.9976) in the linear range of 0.5–400 µg•L−1, the limits of quantification and limits of detection respectively were 0.5–2.5 µg•L−1 and 0.25–1 µg•L−1, and the recoveries were in the range of 81.79–109.82%. Finally, the method was used for the preconcentration and determination of EDPs in different samples, including bottled water, tea beverage and milk.