Preconcentration and sensitive determination of hexabromocyclododecane diastereomers in environmental water samples using solid phase extraction with bamboo charcoal cartridge prior to rapid resolution liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry

In this paper, a simple and cheap method for the simultaneous preconcentration and sensitive determination of three hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) diastereomers (alpha-, beta-, and gamma-HBCD) in environmental water samples has been developed. It was based on solid phase extraction (SPE) and rapid resolution liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry. Bamboo charcoal, one kind of cheap material, was investigated and used as SPE adsorbent for the enrichment and determination of HBCD diastereomers. Related important parameters affecting extraction efficiencies, including type and volume of eluant, amount of sorbent, sample pH, flow rate, and sample volume, were investigated and optimized in detail. Under the optimum conditions, experimental data exhibited excellent linear relationships between peak area and concentrations over the range 0.1-10 mu g L-1. The limits of detection and precision were in the range of 0.005-0.015 mu g L-1 and 4.59-7.47%, respectively. The proposed method has been successfully applied for the trace analysis of HBCD diastereomers in real-world environmental water samples.