Rapid analysis of phthalic acid esters in environmental water using fast elution gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and adaptive library spectra

Abstract

A method for the fast determination of the components in a complex sample by using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry was developed and used for the quantitative analysis of phthalic acid esters in environmental water. In the method, the adaptively corrected mass spectra were used to compensate for the differences between the library spectra and the measured ones in the experiment. The correction was obtained by the iterative transformation of the library spectra using iterative target transformation factor analysis, and the resolution was performed by non-negative immune algorithm using the corrected spectra. Rapid analysis of 16 phthalic acid esters in water samples was achieved using fast elution gas chromatography with mass spectrometry measurements. The results show that the mass spectra and chromatographic profiles of the phthalic acid esters can be obtained from the overlapping signal of 13 min elution, and accurate quantitative analysis can be obtained. The recoveries of the phthalic acid esters obtained by standard addition are between 90.3 and 107.4%, and the relative standard deviations obtained in repeated measurements are less than 9%.

Hollow fiber stir bar sorptive extraction for determination of phthalic acid esters in environmental and biological matrices

“…PAEs are so widely used that they can easily migrate into the environment (such as air, soil, groundwater, and so on), and under certain conditions even into the biological system if absorbed by plants and animals [5,6]. Due to a growing international concern about the environment and health effects of PAEs, the analysis of these compounds in various foods and environmental samples was one focus of research in recent years [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”