Simultaneous Determination of Phthalate Acid Ester Plasticizers in Raw Textile Solid Waste by Ultrasonic Extraction and Gas Chromatography – Tandem Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS/MS)

Abstract

A simple method for the determination of 19 types of phthalate acid ester plasticizers in raw textile solid waste has been developed by employing ultrasonic extraction coupled with gas chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The evaluation of the plasticizers in several textile solid wastes showed that the levels were high, especially dimethylglycol phthalate. The extraction solvent, ultrasonic time, and ultrasonic temperature were optimized. Hexane was adopted as the extraction solvent, and ultrasonic extraction was performed at 20 °C for 30 min. A linear relationship from 0.02 to 1000 ng/mL was obtained with correlation coefficients(r) greater than 0.996. The limits of quantitation were from 0.08 to 30.70 µg/L based upon a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 10. The recoveries were from 90.1% to 108.9% and the relative standard deviation between 0.78% and 9.43%. The method can be used for rapid screening and quantitative analysis of textile solid waste due to the simple, sensitive, and accurate assay.

Keywords:

• Gas chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS)
• phthalate acid ester plasticizers
• raw textile solid waste

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial support from the Identification and Integrated Demonstration of Cross-Border Textile Raw Material Solid Waste Identification and Comprehensive Utilization of Major Science and Technology Projects in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region by grant nunber 2020A03002-2.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no competing interests.