title: Rapid detection of multiple class pharmaceuticals in both municipal wastewater and sludge with ultra high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.
abstract: This work described the development, optimization and validation of an analytical method for rapid detection of multiple-class pharmaceuticals in both municipal wastewater and sludge samples based on ultrasonic solvent extraction, solid-phase extraction, and ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry quantification. The results indicated that the developed method could effectively extract all the target pharmaceuticals (25) in a single process and analyze them within 24min. The recoveries of the target pharmaceuticals were in the range of 69%-131% for wastewater and 54%-130% for sludge at different spiked concentration levels. The method quantification limits in wastewater and sludge ranged from 0.02 to 0.73ng/L and from 0.02 to 1.00μg/kg, respectively. Subsequently, this method was validated and applied for residual pharmaceutical analysis in a wastewater treatment plant located in Beijing, China. All the target pharmaceuticals were detected in the influent samples with concentrations varying from 0.09ng/L (tiamulin) to 15.24μg/L (caffeine); meanwhile, up to 23 pharmaceuticals were detected in sludge samples with concentrations varying from 60ng/kg (sulfamethizole) to 8.55mg/kg (ofloxacin). The developed method demonstrated its selectivity, sensitivity, and reliability for detecting multiple-class pharmaceuticals in complex matrices such as municipal wastewater and sludge.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China. Electronic address: yuanxiangjuan1986@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Xiangjuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China. Electronic address: qiangz@rcees.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Zhimin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ben
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science and Technology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Junxin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000032:analysis*; D012722:Sewage / Q000032:analysis*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D012722:Sewage; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Municipal wastewater; Pharmaceuticals; Sludge; Solid phase extraction; UPLC–MS/MS; Ultrasonic solvent extraction