Simultaneous determination of 18 pharmaceuticals and personal care products in surface water by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

An analytical method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of 18 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), including antibiotics (trimethoprim, erythromycin x 2H2O, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, pencilline G, penicillin V potassium salt, cephalexin and sulfamethoxazole), beta-bloker (atenolol), anophelifuge (N, N-diethyl-3-methylbenzoylamide, DEET), antiepileptics (carbamazepine), central nervous system stimulant (caffeine), lipid modifying agent (clofibric acid), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, naproxen and diclofenac sodium salt) and antimicrobial agents (triclosan and triclocarban). The detection and qualification of the target compounds were performed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The optimized mobile phases were methanol as organic phase, 0. 3% (v/v) formic acid-5 mmol/L ammonium acetate for positive electrospray ionization (ESI+) and 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate for ESI- as inorganic phase. Water samples were concentrated by solid phase extraction at 2 mL/min, and all the target PPCPs were efficiently extracted at pH 7. The extracted PPCPs were eluted by the mixture of methanol and acetonitrile (1 : 1, v/v). The average recoveries of the target compounds in the spiked pure water samples ranged from 53.9% - 112%. The average recoveries of the target compounds ranged from 45.1% - 156.6% with the relative standard deviations ranged from 2.4% - 15.7%, in the surface water samples spiked at 100 ng/L. The surface water samples collected from Yu Hangtang River in Hangzhou were detected. The results showed that nine PPCPs were detected including caffeine that reached a maximum concentration of 550.7 ng/L. It proved that this analytical method is reliable and acceptable.