Accuracy Profiles for Analyzing Residual Solvents in Textiles by GC-MS

Excess residual solvents (RSs) in clothes or other textiles could be toxic and pose risks to both humans and the environment. N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF), N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP) are important chemicals frequently used as solvents in the textile industry. Several organizations have proposed limiting DMF, DMAc and NMP in textiles, but an appropriate detection method has not been proposed. A sensitive GC-MS method for the quantification of DMF, DMAc and NMP in textiles was developed. After extraction with ethyl acetate, these RSs were separated on a DB-5MS capillary column. The oven temperature was increased from 50°C (held for 0.5 min) at 10°C/min to 120°C (held for 1 min). The method was fully validated according to the accuracy profile procedure, which is based on β-expectation tolerance intervals for the total measurement bias. Linearity was observed in the range of 0.5-10 mg/L for the solvents with limit of quantification values of 4.2, 3.5 and 2.5 mg/kg for DMF, DMAc and NMP, respectively. The repeatability and intermediate precision were <5.34% and 7.95% for DMF, 5.37% and 9.68% for DMAc, and 2.68% and 5.85% for NMP. The recoveries of DMF, DMAc and NMP were 91.2-106.3%, 89.5-97.7% and 85.6-101.3%, respectively.