Selective determination of organophosphate flame retardants and plasticizers in indoor air by gas chromatography, positive‐ion chemical ionization and collision‐induced dissociation mass spectrometry

Abstract

Gas chromatography/ion trap mass spectrometry with in-source ionization and dissociation was used in positive-ion chemical ionization (PICI) mode for the determination of organophosphate triesters in indoor air. These compounds are widely used as additive flame retardants and plasticizers in different types of materials and have become ubiquitous pollutants in indoor environments. When using collision-induced dissociation in PICI mode the fragmentation of the organophosphate triesters can be performed in a more controllable way than in electron ionization (EI) mode. The developed selected-reaction monitoring method provided high selectivity for the investigated compounds. For 8-h air measurements (corresponding to 1.5 m3 of sampled air) the limit of detection of the method was determined to be in the range 0.1-1.4 ng m(-3), which is comparable with nitrogen-phosphorus detection and about 50-fold lower than when using EI in selected-ion monitoring mode. The presented method was applied to samples from three common indoor environments, in which a number of organophosphate triesters were identified and quantified. The dominating compound was found to be tris(2-chloropropyl) phosphate, which occurred at levels up to 0.8 microg m(-3).

Organic Micropollutants

“…Another disadvantage is that it does not offer positive identification. MS is a more powerful identification tool (Björklund et al ., 2004). It has a higher selectivity and the option of using isotope-labelled compounds for quantification.…”

“…GC-MS-positive ion chemical ionization (PICI) is needed for identification of the alkylated phosphates (Carlsson et al ., 1997;Björklund et al ., 2004). However, GC-MS-PICI has a limited sensitivity (García-López et al ., 2009).…”

“…40 times more fat retainer than fat is required to give a fat-free extract). Further developments combined the fat retainer method with an online carbon column for the fractionation of dioxins, furans and non-ortho PCBs (Björklund et al ., 2006).…”

“…PLE methods with online clean-up previously described for PCBs (Section 6.2.2.1) can also be used for PBDEs (Björklund et al ., 2006). Silica impregnated with sulfuric acid, alumina and Florisil have all been used as fat retainers.…”

Biosensor system for continuous monitoring of organophosphate aerosols

“…Detection of OPs in air is currently performed by chromatography coupled with mass selective detectors or various types of spectroscopy (Staaf and Ostman, 2005;Bjorklund et al, 2004;Sanchez et al, 2003). Such techniques are time consuming, expensive and often require highly trained personnel, making them impractical for continuous monitoring.…”