Determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers at trace levels in environmental waters using hollow-fiber microporous membrane liquid–liquid extraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

In this study, we present a simple and easy-to-use extraction method that is based on a hollow-fiber microporous membrane liquid–liquid extraction (HF-MMLLE), as an extraction technique, followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to determine a group of brominated flame retardants (BFRs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), at trace levels in aqueous samples. The hollow-fiber membrane (HF) filled with organic solvent was immersed into the aqueous sample, spiked with the analytes at ng l−1 level, and stirred for 60 min. The proposed method could attain enrichment factors (Ee) up to 5200 times, after optimising parameters, such as organic solvent, stirring speed and extraction time, that affect the extraction. The HF-MMLLE–GC–MS method was successfully applied to the extraction of PBDEs from tap, river and leachate water samples with spike recoveries ranging from 85% to 110%. The method validation with reagent and leachate water samples provided good linearity, detection limits of 1.1 ng l−1 or lower, both in reagent and leachate water, as well as satisfactory precision in terms of repeatability and reproducibility with values of % relative standard deviation (%RSD) lower than 8.6 and 16.9, respectively.