Programed nebulizing-gas pressure mode for quantitative capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry analysis of endocrine disruptors in honey

The application of programed nebulizing-gas pressure (PNP) has been previously described to be a simple strategy for the separation of anions by capillary electrophoresis-electrospray-mass spectrometry (CE-ESI-MS). The PNP mode provided high resolution and stable analyses and also had the advantage of allowing the use of capillaries wider than the 50-75 μm conventional ones. Here, the application of the PNP approach to the quantitative analysis of pollutants in real samples by CE-ESI-MS is described for the first time; in particular, for the determination several endocrine disruptors (2,4-dichlorophenol, 2,4,5-trichlorophenol, pentachlorophenol, bisphenol-A, 4-tert-butyl-phenol, and 4-tert-butyl benzoic acid) in honey. For sample pretreatment, different liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) procedures were assayed and compared to the QuEChERS(?) methodology prior to electrophoretic analysis. With the application of the PNP approach to CE-ESI-MS, the limits of detection achieved were in the 1-4 ng/g range with a simple liquid-liquid procedure without any further clean-up step; relative standard deviation values in the 2-9% range were found. The analytical characteristics allow the proposed method to be used in the control analysis of these compounds in honey.