LAUSR

Phthalate esters are easily released from plastics materials and migrate into the soil and water environment, causing serious pollution and posing a great threat to the health of human beings. A novel temperature-sensitive extractant combined with liquid-liquid microextraction was developed to preconcentrate three phthalates in the water environment. To optimize the extraction efficiency for the three phthalate esters, various parameters, including polymer molecular weight, salt type, salt addition, adsorption time, desorption solvent, desorption volume and desorption time have been studied. Under optimal conditions, limits of detection and limits of quantification were in the range of 0.007-0.120 and 0.021-0.350 μg L-1 , respectively. Linearities varied in the range of 5-1000 μg L-1 , with the correlation coefficients of 0.9867-0.9997. The preconcentration factors were in the range of 25-75. The relative recoveries of the three phthalate esters were in the range from 82.2 to 105.6 % at the spiked levels. The relative standard deviations were in the range of 0.7-9.2 % based on triplicate measurements. The results indicate that the temperature-sensitive material is a good extractant for phthalate esters in water samples. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.