A sensitive pre-column derivatization method using 10-ethyl-acridone-2-sulfonyl chloride (EASC) as precolumn labeling reagent followed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection has been developed for the determination of eight endocrine-disrupting compounds: 4-octylphenol, 4-nonylphenol, bisphenol A, diethylstilbestrol, estrone, 17α-ethynylestradiol, 17β-estradiol and estriol in wastewater samples. Solid phase extraction (SPE) with ODS C18 cartridges was used for the extraction and purification. Derivatizing parameters including pH value, temperature and concentration of EASC, as well as types of SPE cartridges and eluents were investigated in detail. Under optimal conditions, the quantification limits for the desired compounds ranging from 1.0 to 2.0 ng L−1 were obtained. The recoveries were higher than 80.4% with a noticeable improvement for 4-octylphenol and 4-nonylphenol, whose recoveries were usually lower than 50% during the SPE process. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of the target compounds in wastewater samples with a much higher sensitivity than traditional HPLC method.
Additional Information:
1. Author Information:Shijuan Zhang，Jinmao You, Zhiwei Sun, Cuihua Song, Shujing Ning, Changsheng Zhao, Yourui Suo
Correspondence: E-mail:jmyou6304@163.com
2. Published : Microchemical Journal 103 (2012) 90–96