Simultaneous Determination of Organophosphate Ester Flame Retardants in Water and Sediments by Gas Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS/MS)

Organophosphate esters (OPEs) are commonly used in commercial products as flame retardants. In the present study, a simple method was established for the simultaneous determination of 10 OPEs in aquacultural water and sediments. The targets were extracted using dichloromethane or ethyl acetate, cleaned up by solid-phase extraction, and determined by gas chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry. The matrix effects were lower than 20% for all OPEs except for tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate in sediments (matrix effect: 29.4%). In spiked water samples, the recoveries of the OPEs were from 72.3% to 108% with relative standard deviations ≤10.2% and the limits of detection from 0.17 to 1.13 ng·L−1. In spiked sediments, the recoveries of the OPEs were from 101% to 121% with relative standard deviations ≤11.2% with limits of detection from 0.02 to 0.32 ng·g−1, dry weight (dw). The developed method was applied to the analysis of aquaculture samples from Kaozhouyang Bay, China. The total concentration ranges of the 10 OPEs in the water and sediments were from 121 to 159 ng·L−1 and 7.54 to 13.3 ng·g−1, dw, respectively.