Determination of decabromodiphenyl ether in sediments using selective pressurized liquid extraction followed by GC-NCI-MS.
A method based on selective pressurized liquid extraction (SPLE) followed by gas chromatography-negative ion chemical ionization-mass spectrometry (GC-NCI-MS) has been evaluated for analysis of decabromodiphenyl ether (PBDE-209) in sediment samples. Instrumental operating conditions such as source temperature and system pressure were optimized in the NCI-MS system, giving an instrumental detection limit of 2 pg. The limit of determination of the entire SPLE-GC-NCI-MS procedure was around 50 pg g(-1) dry weight (dw), with repeatability of replicates between 4 and 21% relative standard deviation. Application of the method to 13 different river and marine sediment samples collected in Spain revealed that levels of decabromodiphenyl ether ranged between 2 and 132 ng g(-1) dry weight.