Simultaneous Determination of Six Bisphenol Residues in Surface Water by UPLC-MS/MS

A method of solid phase extraction-ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) was developed for the determination of six bisphenol residues in surface water, including bisphenol A, bisphenol AF, bisphenol C, bisphenol F, bisphenol S, and tetrabromobisphenol A. The water samples were concentrated and purified through HLB solid phase extraction cartridges. UPLC separation was performed on a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH T3 column (1.7 μm×2.1 mm×100 mm) utilizing a gradient elution program of methanol (containing 2 mmol/L ammonium acetate) and water (containing 2 mmol/L ammonium acetate) as the mobile phases at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. The MS/MS detection was performed under negative electrospray ionization (ESI^-) in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The results showed that good linearity was observed in the range of 0.10-50.0 μg/L or 0.50-100 μg/L with the correlation coefficients from 0.997 to 0.999, the limits of detection (LODs) for the six bisphenols were in the range of 0.05-0.31 ng/L. The recoveries ranged from 74.8% to 122% at three spiking levels, and the relative standard deviations (n=6) were between 3.33% and 12.4%. The developed method was applied to analysis of the investigated compounds in surface water samples, which were collected from rivers and reservoirs in Hangzhou, and 5 pollutants were found. This method has high sensitivity and precision, extensive analytical range and quick analytical rate, which is suitable for analysis of the six investigated pollutants in surface water.