Detection of Phthalate Esters in Environmental Water Samples-Comparison of Nylon6 Nanofibers Mat-based Solid Phase Extraction and Other Conventional Extraction Methods

In this article, a new method for simultaneous determination of six phthalate esters was developed by a combination of electrospun nylon6 nanofibers mat‐based solid phase extraction with high performance liquid chromatography‐ultraviolet detector (HPLC‐UV). The six phthalate esters were dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), di‐n‐butyl phthalate (DBP), di‐(2‐ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and dioctyl phthalate (DOP). Under optimized conditions, all target analytes in 50 mL environmental water samples could be completely extracted by 2.5 mg nylon6 nanofibers mat and eluted by 100 µL solvent. Compared with C18 cartridges solid phase extraction, C18 disks solid phase extraction and national standard method (China), nylon6 nanofibers mat‐based solid phase extraction was advantageous in aspects of simple and fast operation, low consumption of extraction materials and organic solvents. The four methods were applied to analysis of environment water samples. All the results indicated that the determination values of target compounds with the proposed method were consistent with C18 cartridges and C18 disks solid phase extraction method, and the new method was better than the national standard method in aspects of recovery, LOD and precision. Therefore, nylon6 nanofibers mat has great potential as a novel material for solid phase extraction.