[An on-line solid phase extraction column switching liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry system to analyze...

To develop a method for bisphenol A (BPA) and nonylphenol (NP) analysis in drinking water by on-line solid phase extraction (SPE) column switching liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

Target compounds were concentrated and purified by a Waters Direct Connect HP XBridge C18 column, with average particle size 10 microm. The mobile phase of SPE extraction column was methanol/water at a flow-rate of 2.0 ml/min. The analytical column was Waters BEH C18 column (2.1 mm x 50 mm, 1.7 microm) and the mobile phase was methanol/0.1% ammonia water at a flow-rate of 0.4 ml/min. BPA and NP were analyzed by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) in the negative ion mode with multiple reactions monitoring (MRM).

The whole run time of an individual sample was about 10 min. The linear calibration curves covered the range of 5 - 1000 ng/L and 10 - 5000 ng/L for BPA and NP, respectively, while the correlation coefficients (r2) were above 0.999. The quantification limits of the method were 5 and 10 ng/L for BPA and NP, respectively. Recovery test was performed at three fortification levels, mean recoveries ranged from 86.6% to 105% with acceptable coefficients of variation (3.11% - 18.2%, n = 6). The inter-day precisions were less than 13.2%.

The established On-line SPE LC-MS/MS method needs no complicated sample pretreatment step, which is significantly time-saving. The analytical procedure is rapid, simple, and high-sensitive. It can be applied to analysis BPA and NP in drinking water.