Carboxyl functionalized sorbent based solid-phase extraction for sensitive determination of endocrine disrupting chemicals in bottled water, juice and milk

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) pose a serious threat to human health even at extremely low concentration. Three carboxyl functionalized porous polymers (PDA-DPBP, PTCDA-DPBP and ODPA-DPBP) were synthesized for the first time and employed as solid-phase extraction sorbent to enrich phenolic EDCs at trace level. Compared with PTCDA-DPBP, ODPA-DPBP and corresponding carboxyl-free counterpart (PC-DPBP), PDA-DPBP delivered superior enrichment efficiency for the phenolic EDCs, which can be ascribed to the strong hydrogen bonding, pore filling, hydrophobic interaction and pi-pi interaction between PDA-DPBP and phenolic EDCs. Coupled with high performance liquid chromatography, phenolic EDC residues in bottled water, juice and milk samples were enriched and determined. At the optimum conditions, the PDA-DPBP based method provided a good linear response in the range of 0.04-100ng mL(-1) for bottled water, 0.07-100ng mL(-1) for juice and 0.15-500ng mL(-1) for milk samples. The detection limits (S/N=3) were 0.01-0.04, 0.02-0.06 and 0.05-0.10ng mL(-1) for bottled water, juice and milk, respectively. The method recoveries were in the range from 81.6% to 116%, with RSDs <= 7.7%. This work provides an attractive and reliable alternative method for sensitive determination of phenolic EDCs.

Automated summary

Three carboxyl functionalized porous polymers were synthesized and employed as solid-phase extraction sorbent to enrich phenolic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) at trace level. Among them, PDA-DPBP showed superior enrichment efficiency due to the strong hydrogen bonding, pore filling, hydrophobic interaction and pi-pi interaction between PDA-DPBP and phenolic EDCs. The method combined with high performance liquid chromatography provided a reliable alternative for sensitive determination of phenolic EDCs in bottled water, juice and milk samples. Overall rating: 8/10.