Highly sensitive determination of tetrabromobisphenol A and bisphenol A in environmental water samples by solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Using bamboo-activated charcoal as SPE adsorbent, a novel SPE method was developed for the sensitive determination of tetrabromobisphenol A and bisphenol A in environmental water samples by rapid-resolution LC-ESI-MS/MS. Important parameters influencing extraction efficiency, including type of eluent, eluent volume, sample pH, volume and flow rate, were investigated and optimized. Under the optimal extraction conditions (eluent: 8 mL methanol, pH: 7; flow rate: 4 mL/min; sample volume: 100 mL), low LODs (0.01-0.02 ng/mL), good repeatability (6.2-8.3%) and wide linearity range (0.10-10 ng/mL) were obtained. Satisfied results were achieved when the proposed method was applied to determine the two target compounds in real-world environmental water samples with spiked recoveries over the range of 80.5-119.8%. All these facts indicate that trace determination of tetrabromobisphenol A and bisphenol A in real-world environmental water samples can be realized by bamboo-activated charcoal SPE-rapid resolution-LC-ESI-MS/MS.