Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction followed by microwave-assisted silylation and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis for simultaneous trace quantification of bisphenol A and 13 ultraviolet filters in wastewaters

A novel multi-residue gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method was validated for the simultaneous determination of trace levels (ng/L) of 13 UV-filters and bisphenol A (BPA) in wastewater samples. It was based on dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLMME) followed by rapid microwave-assisted silylation of the analytes. Several parameters of both extraction and derivatization steps such as type of extractive and dispersive solvents, solvent volumes, pH, salt addition, time and power of microwave were evaluated to achieve the highest yield and to attain the lowest detection limits. Optimized DLLME consisted in the formation of a cloudy solution promoted by the fast addition to the sample (10 mL) of a mixture of tetrachloroethylene (50 μL, extraction solvent) in acetone (1 mL, dispersive solvent). The sedimented phase obtained was evaporated and further silylated under the irradiation of 600 W microwave for 5 min, being the derivatization yields similar to those obtained after a conventional heating process for 30 min at 75 °C. Limits of detection and quantification of the method using real samples were 2 ng/L and 10 ng/L, respectively. Mean extraction efficiency of 82% for three concentrations were achieved, supporting the accuracy of the method. Intra-day and inter-day repeatability of measurements (expressed as relative standard deviation) were lower than 22%. The method was successfully applied to the determination of UV-filters and BPA in samples collected from 15 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Portugal. Eight analytes were detected, among which 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone, 2-ethylhexyl-4-(dimethylamino)benzoate, octocrylene, and BPA were consistently found in the three seasons of collection.