A sensitive method for extraction and determination of endocrine-disrupting compounds from wastewater using 10-ethyl-acridone-2-sulfonyl chloride as pre-column labeling reagent by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

A sensitive pre-column derivatization method using 10-ethyl-acridone-2-sulfonyl chloride (EASC) as pre-column labeling reagent followed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection has been developed for the determination of eight endocrine-disrupting compounds: 4-octylphenol, 4-nonylphenol, bisphenol A. diethylstilbestrol, estrone, 17 alpha-ethynylestradiol, 17 beta-estradiol and estriol in wastewater samples. Solid phase extraction (SPE) with ODS C18 cartridges was used for the extraction and purification. Derivatizing parameters including pH value, temperature and concentration of EASC, as well as types of SPE cartridges and eluents were investigated in detail. Under optimal conditions, the quantification limits for the desired compounds ranging from 1.0 to 2.0 ng(-1) were obtained. The recoveries were higher than 80.4% with a noticeable improvement for 4-octylphenol and 4-nonylphenol, whose recoveries were usually lower than 50% during the SPE process. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of the target compounds in wastewater samples with a much higher sensitivity than traditional HPLC method. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.