title: Highly sensitive determination of dialkyl phosphinate acids in environmental samples by ion chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.
abstract: Dialkyl phosphinate acids (DPAs) are the hydrolysates of aluminum dialkyl phosphinates (ADPs), one class of emerging phosphorus flame retardants since brominated flame retardants have been gradually phased out in recent years. It has been found that once dissolved in water, ADPs are completely hydrolyzed and exist as DPAs. However, there is no report on the determination of DPAs in environmental water samples. For the first time, we developed a method for the analysis of trace DPAs and ADPs in different environmental samples, including waters, soils and sediments. In this proposed method, MAX cartridges were employed for the purification, and ion chromatography (IC) tandem mass spectrometry (MS) method with large volume injection (200μL) and postcolumn addition of methanol and NH3·H2O were employed for the determination of DPAs and ADPs. The matrix effects were <16% for water samples and <25% for soil/sediment samples, which were greatly improved in comparison to the liquid chromatography (LC) tandem MS determination. Determined at three fortified levels of 0.02μg/L, 0.2μg/L and 1.0μg/L, the mean recoveries were from 75.8% to 110.2%, with an acceptable coefficient of variation (3.3-20%, n=6) for water samples. The limits of the method were 3.5-9.3ng/L for DPAs in environmental water samples, and 0.06-0.09μg/kg for DPAs and ADPs in soil and sediment samples. For soil and sediment samples, results determined by the present IC-MS method were in good agreement with that determined by LC-MS in our previous study.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Jianghan University, Hubei Province, Wuhan 430056, China; Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Chemical Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, Jianghan University, Hubei Province, Wuhan 430056, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Jianghan University, Hubei Province, Wuhan 430056, China.
authors.forename: Ji-Yan
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China. Electronic address: jfliu@rcees.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Jing-Fu
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange / Q000379:methods; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D005411:Flame Retardants / Q000032:analysis; D010721:Phosphinic Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D005411:Flame Retardants; D010721:Phosphinic Acids; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Dialkyl phosphinate acids; Environmental water sample; IC–ESI–MS/MS; Soil and sediment sample; Solid phase extraction