Simultaneous extraction and analysis of 11 tetracycline and sulfonamide antibiotics in influent and effluent domestic wastewater by solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in which antibiotic compounds are not totally eliminated are considered to be point sources of antibiotic contamination in surface and ground waters. Therefore, there is a need for sensitive and reliable analytical methods for measuring these compounds in WWTP water matrices. This paper describes a simultaneous method for the determination of six tetracyclines (TCs) (oxytetracycline (OTC), tetracycline (TC), demeclocycline (DMC), chlortetracycline (CTC), doxycycline (DXC), meclocycline (MCC)) and five sulfonamides (SAs) (sulfathiazole (STZ), sulfamethazine (SMT), sulfachloropyridazine (SCP), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and sulfadimethoxine (SDM)) using solid-phase extraction followed by liquid chromatography-ion trap tandem mass spectrometry. The average recovery of 11 antibiotics for simultaneous extraction was 83.3 ± 12.6 and 89.8 ± 11.5% for six TCs, and 95.2 ± 11.4 and 97.7 ± 10.6% for five SAs in the influent and effluent water, respectively. Matrix effects were found to be significant when measuring TCs but not SAs. The accuracy and day-to-day variation of the method fell within an acceptable range of 15% absolute. Method detection limits in wastewater matrices were between 0.03 and 0.07 μg/L. For the investigated 11 antibiotic compounds TC, DMC, CTC, DXC, SMT, SMX and SDM were found in the influents with a concentration range of 0.05-1.09 μg/L. CTC, DXC and SMX were also detected in the effluents with a concentration range of 0.06-0.21 μg/L. These results were compared with those in WWTP effluents of Canada, Germany and Switzerland.