Enrichment and determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in environmental water samples by magnetic solid-phase extraction with core-shell magnetic carbon microspheres before gas chromatography with mass spectrometry

Core-shell magnetic carbon microspheres were synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method and used as a novel magnetic solid-phase extraction adsorbent for the sensitive determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in environmental water samples. Gas chromatography with negative chemical ionization mass spectrometry was adopted for the detection. Box-Behnken design was used to investigate and optimize important magnetic solid-phase extraction parameters through response surface methodology. Under the optimal conditions, low limits of detection (0.07-0.17 ng.L-1), a wide linear range (1-1000 ng.L-1), and good repeatability (0.80-4.58%) were achieved. The developed method was validated with several real water samples, and satisfactory results were obtained in the range of 72.8-97.9%. These results indicated that core-shell magnetic carbon microspheres have great potential as an adsorbent for the magnetic solid-phase extraction of polybrominated diphenyl ethers at trace levels from environmental water samples.