Simultaneous extraction and clean-up of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and polychlorinated biphenyls from sheep liver tissue by selective pressurized liquid extraction and analysis by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

We describe a selective pressurized liquid extraction (SPLE) method, followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), for the simultaneous extraction and clean-up of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sheep liver tissue samples. The on-line clean-up of liver tissue by SPLE was tested using differing amount of acid-modified silica (sulphuric acid:silica gel, 1:2, w/w), the most effective amount being 20 g. Different extraction solvents (iso-hexane and dichloromethane), either alone or in various combinations, were used to extract these target compounds from spiked liver samples. Variables affecting the SPLE extraction efficiency, including temperature, pressure, number of extraction cycles and static extraction time were studied; the optimum parameters were 80 °C, 10.3 MPa, 2 cycles and 5 min, respectively. The SPLE based method was compared with more traditional Soxhlet, off-line PLE, ultrasonic and heating extraction methods. Overall the mean percentage recoveries for all target chemicals using SPLE were 86–103% (n = 3, SD < 9%), and compared favourably with the Soxhlet (63–109%, n = 3, SD < 8%), off-line PLE (82–104%, n = 3, SD < 18%), ultrasonic (86–99%, n = 3, SD < 11%) and heating (72–102%, n = 3, SD < 21%) extraction methods. The limits of detection of the proposed method were 5–96 pg g−1 and 2–29 pg g−1 for the different PBDE and PCB chemicals studied, respectively. The outputs of the proposed method were linear over the range from 0.02 to 30 ng g−1, for all PCB and PBDE congeners except for PBDE 100 and 153 (0.05–30 ng g−1) and PBDE 183 (0.1–30 ng g−1). The method was successfully applied to sheep liver samples for the determination of the target PBDE and PCB compounds.