Simultaneous quantitative detection of 10 phthalates in PVC children's toys by HPLC-PDA

A high-performance chromatography-photodiode array detection (HPLC-PAD) method has been developed and validated for the identification and quantification of ten phthalates; diethyl phthalate (DEP), diallyl phthalate (DAP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), dihexyl phthalate (DHP), dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP), di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DOP), diisononyl phthalate (DINP) and diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) in children's PVC toys. The phthalates were extracted from PVC toy sample using ultrasonic extraction with methanol. Quantification analysis was achieved by gradient elution mode using reversed-phase ODS-4 C₁₈ column with PAD detection at 226 nm. The method has been validated for (BBP, DOP, DINP, and DIDP) and (DEP, DAP, DBP, DCHP, DHP, and DEHP) in the concentration range of 1-100 and 2-200 mg L^-1, respectively. The accuracy determined as recovery were 82.85-107.40% with RSD values at 0.8-4.2%. The limits of detection for (DEP, DAP, BBP, DBP, DCHP, DHP, DEHP, DOP, DINP, and DIDP) were 0.02, 0.04, 0.01, 0.03, 0.02, 0.03, 0.03, 0.01, 0.08, and 0.10 mg L^-1, respectively.