title: Analysis of bromophenols in various aqueous samples using solid phase extraction followed by HPLC-MS/MS.
abstract: A reliable and effective method for simultaneous analysis of trace amount of bromophenols (BPs) in various aqueous samples was developed in this study. The aqueous samples must be acidified after sampling to prevent the fast degradation of bromophenols. Solid-phase extraction was chosen to extract and purify the water samples. High performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry with an electrospray ionization source (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) was used for following identification and quantification. Under the optimized condition, fourteen out of fifteen target brominated phenols were successfully separated and detected with the exception of 2,6-bromophenol (2,6-BP) whose response was too low to be quantified by the MS detector. The method was validated by spiking river water and seawater samples with different concentrations of BPs, and the qualified spiking recoveries (64-100%) and precisions (0.4-11% RSD) were obtained. The method detection limits were 0.1-13.9ng/L and 0.1-21.9ng/L for 0.1L of river water and seawater samples, respectively, showing the influences from the sample matrix. The proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of bromophenol contamination in real water samples, and six bromophenols were identified with a wide concentrations ranging from ng/L to μg/L.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China; Institute of Polar Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Xiyuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: liujy@rcees.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Jiyan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Miao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Polar Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Zhouqing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China; College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Guibin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jiang
keywords: Aqueous samples; Bromophenols; LC-MS/MS; Solid phase extraction