Development of a low‐density‐solvent dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry method for the quantitation of tetrabromobisphenol‐A from dust

The development of an alternative dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction protocol utilizing a low‐density extraction solvent, toluene, is described here for the extraction of the brominated flame retardant, tetrabromobisphenol‐A, from dust prior to selected ion monitoring analysis by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Method parameters of dispersive solvent type and extraction solvent type were optimized. Excellent recovery (88.9%; n = 5 spike replicates) with good precision was achieved in a spike and recovery study. This developed method was utilized to survey tetrabromobisphenol‐A concentrations in dust sampled from a local electronics recycling facility from the ambient environment and 20 computer towers undergoing recycling. Concentrations of tetrabromobisphenol‐A from dust in computer towers ranged from not detected (n = 2) up to 64 μg/g with a mean value of 11 μg/g and median of 4.1 μg/g tetrabromobisphenol‐A. A composite sample of dust collected from the ambient indoor environment was analyzed with a resulting concentration of 36 μg/g. This is the first application of this novel green method for pre‐concentrating flame retardants from dust and the first report of tetrabromobisphenol‐A concentrations at a U.S.‐based electronics recycling facility.