A solvent free method of analysis to rapidly determine trace levels of ten medium and low brominated diphenyl ethers in soil pore water

Abstract

A solvent free method of analysis for rapid simultaneous determination of ten medium and low brominated diphenyl ethers at trace levels in soil pore water by headspace solid phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography equipped with an electron capture detector was developed. Extraction conditions such as desorption time, polydimethylsiloxane thickness, ionic strength, temperature, stirring and extraction time were carefully studied and optimized. In addition, the effects of pH and dissolved organic matter on headspace solid phase microextraction were thoroughly studied. For the ten medium and low brominated diphenyl ethers in this study, the limits of detection ranged from 0.04 to 1.20 ng L⁻¹, and the relative standard deviations were lower than 10.00%. Soil pore water from red soil, yellow-brown soil and black soil was quantitatively analyzed with recoveries ranging from 80.40% to 108.90%, and from 85.9% to 108.45% at 50 ng L⁻¹ and 200 ng L⁻¹, respectively.