Determination of three citrate ester plasticizers in PVC plastic food contact materials by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

ObjectiveTo establish an analytical method for determination of three types of citrate ester plasticizers in PVC plastic food contact materials using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.MethodsThe samples were extracted with n-hexane/dichloromethane （1∶1， V/V）， purified via silica gel solid phase extraction column， eluted using acetonitrile/ethyl acetate （1∶4， V/V）， added into a UPLC-MS/MS system， separated by BEH C18 column （2.1 mm × 50 mm， 1.7 μm） with acetonitrile and ultrapure water as mobile phase， detected using an ESI source in MRM positive ion mode， and quantified using an external standard.ResultsThe linear relationship of the method was good and the coefficient of determination （R2） was greater than 0.996. The limits of detection were 0.1-0.6 μg/kg， and the limits of quantitation were 0.3-2.2 μg/kg. The recoveries of the three types of citrate esters plasticizers were 70.3%-103.1%， and the relative standard deviations （RSDs） （n=6） were 0.9%-9.8%.ConclusionThe proposed method is highly sensitive， rapid， and highly applicable， and can meet the requirements for the detection of citrate ester plasticizers in plastic materials， which provides a means to supervise the addition of new plasticizers.

Keywords

• food contact materials
• citrate esters plasticizers
• pvc
• ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry