Determination of phthalate esters in liquor samples by vortex-assisted surfactant-enhanced-emulsification liquid–liquid microextraction followed by GC–MS

Abstract

A novel method using vortex-assisted surfactant-enhanced-emulsification liquid-liquid microextraction has been developed for the extraction of phthalate esters (PAEs) in Chinese liquor samples prior to analysis by GC-MS. In the proposed method, a high-density extraction solvent (carbon tetrachloride) was dispersed into samples with the aid of a surfactant (Triton X-100) and vortex agitation, resulting in a short extraction equilibrium (30 s). After centrifugation, a single microdrop of solvent was easily collected for GC-MS analysis. Key factors that affected the extraction efficiency were optimized. Under the optimum conditions, linearity was found in the range from 0.05 to 50 姯L. Coefficients of determination varied from 0.9938 to 0.9971. LODs, based on an S/N of 3, ranged from 4.9 to 13 ng/L. Enrichment factors varied from 140 to 184. Reproducibility and recoveries were assessed by testing a series of three liquor samples that were spiked with different concentration levels. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of PAEs in 16 Chinese liquor samples. In this work, high-density-solvent vortex-assisted surfactant-enhanced-emulsification liquid-liquid microextraction was applied for the first time for the extraction of PAEs in Chinese liquor samples and was proved to be simple, rapid, and sensitive.