Simultaneous determination of 11 bisphenols in plastic bottled drinking water by ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A sensitive method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 11 bisphenols in plastic bottled drinking water by ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The samples were freeze-dried under vacuum and then dissolved with methanol. The separation was performed on a UPLC BEH C-18 column (100 mmx2. 1 mm, 1.7 mu m) by using 0. 1% (v/v) NH3 center dot H2O and methanol as mobile phases with gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. The electrospray ionization (ESI) source in negative ion mode was used for the analysis of the 11 bisphenols in the multiple reaction monitoring (MEM) mode. The results verified that the standard curves for the 11 bisphenols were obtained with good correlation coefficients (R-2) >0. 997 in their concentration ranges. The limits of detection (LOD, S/N= 3) for the 11 bisphenols were in the range of 0. 01-1. 00 mu g/L. The mean recoveries for the 11 bisphenols at three spiked levels ( low, middle, high) were 75. 3%-102. 1% with the relative standard deviations of 1.5% -8. 9%. Seven plastic bottled drinking water samples were tested, and no bisphenol was found. The method is accurate, simple, rapid and feasible for the simultaneous determination of bisphenols in plastic bottled drinking water.