Simultaneous determination of benzophenone-type UV filters in water and soil by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Abstract

A novel method has been developed to simultaneously determine and quantify seven organic UV filters employing liquid (solid)–liquid extraction, derivatization with N-methyl- N-(trimethylsilyl) trifluoroacetamide (MSTFA) and gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection in various environmental matrices. The UV filters determined were: benzophenone (BP), benzhydrol (BH), 4-hydroxybenzophenone (HBP), 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone (HMB), 2,4-dihydroxybenzophenone (DHB), 2,2′-dihydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone (DHMB) and 2,3,4-trihydroxylbenzophenone (THB). Under optimal conditions, the analysis required 23 min and good linearity over the range of 10–2500 ng/L in water and 100–25000 ng/kg in soil for each UV filter obtained. The high recovery (62–114% and 60–125% for water and soil samples, respectively) and the low RSD values (less than 13.9 and 17.2% for water and soil samples, respectively) indicated the high performance of this method. The method detection limits (MDLs) were relatively low, ranging from 5 to 100 ng/L or kg and quantification limits ranged between 25 and 500 ng/L or kg for all test compounds. This validated method was applied in the analysis of seven BP-type UV filters collecting water and soil samples in Korea, between April and May 2003. The overall concentration of UV filters in the soil sample (500–18380 ng/kg) was highly distributed in water sample (27–204 ng/L). The established method was successfully applied to monitor the residue measurement of the BP-type UV filters in environmental water and soil samples.