High-throughput dynamic microwave-assisted extraction coupled with liquid–liquid extraction for analysis of tetrabromobisphenol A in soil

Abstract

A simple and rapid sample pretreatment method was proposed for the analysis of tetrabromobisphenol A in soil samples by coupling high-throughput dynamic microwave-assisted extraction with liquid–liquid extraction (LLE), by which up to 15 samples can be treated simultaneously in 20 min. A weakly polar solvent was employed as the extraction solvent, and a microwave absorption tube placed in samples was used to heat the extraction solvent. NaOH aqueous solution was used to purify and transfer the target analyte in the LLE procedure. Finally the organic phase containing the target analyte was concentrated and determined by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The detection limit of the method was 1.4 ng g⁻¹ (28 pg injected). The recoveries were in the range of 80.4–95.1% and the precisions were between 5.2% and 6.9%. The proposed method has almost eliminated the matrix interference, and it is convenient and advantageous to quantify without the matrix-matched standards procedure. It could reduce the consumption of extraction solvent and preparation time, and has a broad prospect for routine analysis of complex solid samples.