title: Analysis of organophosphate flame retardants and plasticisers in water by isotope dilution gas chromatography-electron ionisation tandem mass spectrometry.
abstract: The widespread use of organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs) in commercial products have led to their increased presence in the environment. In this study, a rapid and reliable analytical method was developed for the analysis of five PFRs in water using gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) with electron ionisation (EI) and a run time of 13 min. The PFRs investigated were tributyl phosphate (TBP), tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP), tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCPP), tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCP) and triphenyl phosphate (TPP). Solid phase extraction (SPE) was undertaken to extract and concentrate target analytes from aqueous matrices. All water samples were extracted from a volume of 500 mL. Isotopically labelled compounds were used to account for analytical variability and for accurate quantification by isotope dilution. Method recoveries for all compounds were above 80% in all tested water samples. Method detection limits for all target analytes ranged from 0.3 to 24 ng/L in ultrapure water, tap water, seawater, surface water, secondary effluent and swimming pool water. Validation of this method confirmed satisfactory method stability with less than 1% coefficients of variation, verifying that this approach produced good reproducibility.
authors.affiliation: UNSW Water Research Centre, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia. Electronic address: tiffany.teo@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Tiffany L L
authors.initials: TLL
authors.lastname: Teo
authors.affiliation: UNSW Water Research Centre, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia. Electronic address: jamesmcdonald@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Nanotechnology and Integrated BioEngineering Centre, School of Engineering, University of Ulster, Jordanstown, County Antrim BT37 0QB, Northern Ireland. Electronic address: h.coleman@ulster.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Heather M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.affiliation: UNSW Water Research Centre, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia. Electronic address: s.khan@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Stuart J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Khan
keywords: Drinking water; GC–MS/MS; Seawater; Swimming pool water; Wastewater