Simultaneous determination of nine pharmaceuticals personal care products in waters by solid phase extraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Abstract

An analytical method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of nine pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in water samples, including salicylic acid, naproxen, ibuprofen, paracetamol, clofibric acid, triclosan, diclofenac, ketoprofen, bisphenol A. The qualification and quantification of the target compounds were performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in selected ion monitoring mode (GC-MS-SIM). The water samples were concentrated and purified through Oasis HLB cartridges after the pH value of the water was adjusted to 3, then derivatized with trimethyl sulfonium hydroxide (TMSH) at room temperature, and determined by GC-MS-SIM using 2,4,5-fenoprop as internal standard. The conditions for sample pretreatment (e. g. solid phase extraction and derivatization) were studied. Under the optimized conditions, the recoveries were ranged from 50.7% to 115.4% with the relative standard deviations lower than 10%. The limits of detection were in the range of 0.03-0.30 microg/L and the limits of quantification were in the range of 0.15-1.50 microg/L. The method has been successfully applied to monitor the occurrence of the PPCPs residues in agricultural irrigation water in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. The four compounds were detected at maximum mass concentration range of 0.176-0.998 microg/L. It proved that this analytical method is sensitive, reliable and acceptable.