Simultaneous determination of 21 organophosphorus flame retardants in rice by gas chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

This study presents the development and validation of a fast and high throughput method based on quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) technique followed by gas chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-QTOF/MS) for the simultaneous determination of 21 organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) in rice samples. The factors that impact sample pretreatment and GC-QTOF/MS were optimized and isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) was established for accurate quantification. The recoveries of OPFRs were in the ranges of 82.3%–110.4% and the relative expanded uncertainties ranged from 1.52% to 11.98%. The limit of quantification (LOQ) ranged from 0.05 ng/g to 1.07 ng/g, which is lower than or comparable to that reported in previous works. The developed method was successfully applied to the analysis of real rice samples and 14 OPFRs were detected, with contents ranging from 0.05 ng/g to 10.43 ng/g.