An optimized method for the determination of five synthetic polycyclic: celestolide (ADBI), phantolide (AHMI), traseolide (ATII), galaxolide (HHCB), tonalide (AHTN), and two nitro-aromatic musks: musk xylene (MX) and musk ketone (MK), in water samples is described. The method involves a dispersive micro solid-phase extraction (D-m-SPE) plus ultrasound-assisted solvent desorption (UASD) prior to their determination by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using the selected ion storage (SIS) mode. Factors affecting the extraction efficiency of the target analytes from water samples and ultrasoundassisted solvent desorption were optimized by a Box-Behnken design method. The optimal extraction conditions involved immersing 10.1 mg of a typical octadecyl (C18) bonded silica adsorbent (i.e., ENVI-18) in a 50 mL water sample. After 10.4 min of extraction by vigorously shaking, the adsorbent was collected and dried on a filter, and the target musks were desorbed by ultrasound-assisted for 38 sec with n-hexane (200 mL) as the desorption solvent. A 10 mL aliquot was then directly determined by large-volume injection GC-MS. The limits of quantitation (LOQs) were 1.2 to 5 ng/L. The precision for these analytes, as indicated by relative standard deviations (RSDs), were less than 11% for both intra-and inter-day analysis. Accuracy, expressed as the mean extraction recovery, was between 74% and 92%. A preliminary analysis of the effluents from municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWTP) and river water samples revealed that HHCB and AHTN were the two most commonly detected synthetic musks; their concentration were determined to range from 88 to 690 ng/L for effluent samples, and 5 to 320 ng/L for river water samples. This is a simple, low cost, effective, and eco-friendly analytical method.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.