Simultaneous determination of PCBs, OCPs and PAHs in mussel by ultrasound-assisted cloudy extraction and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

ABSTRACT

A method for the simultaneous determination in mussel of 8 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 23 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), and 35 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including alkyl-PAHs, was optimised using ultrasound-assisted cloudy extraction and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Optimal selection of the extraction solvent and the dispersing solvent contributed to a high extraction yield and a clean extract. The ranges of the lower limits of detection of PCBs, OCPs and PAHs were 0.012–0.058, 0.01–0.29 and 0.01–0.5 μg kg⁻¹, respectively. The feasibility of the proposed method was validated by analysing standard reference materials of mussel with satisfactory results. The precision achieved by this method was in the range of 0.677–2.69% (PCBs), 1.14–6.60% (OCPs) and 0.694–7.46% (PAHs), and its accuracy was in the range of 101–104% (PCBs), 99.6–106% (OCPs) and 101–110% (PAHs). The advantages of the method include the simultaneous measurement of 66 analytes and the simplicity, low cost and high sensitivity of the procedure. When the proposed method was used to analyse the target compounds in 11 mussel samples, the analytical results displayed a concentration range of 0.41–0.45 µg kg⁻¹ for PCBs, 0.26–6.49 µg kg⁻¹ for OCPs, and 3.48–30.69 µg kg⁻¹ for PAHs.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Polychlorinated biphenyls
• organic chlorinated pesticides
• polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons
• shellfish
• gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry
• ultrasound-assisted cloudy extraction

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Environment Research (NIER) funded by the Ministry of Environment (MOE) of the Republic of Korea [Grant number: NIER-2018-01-01-089].