Simultaneous determination of seven nitrogen-containing phenyl ethers in cosmetics by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and dispersive solid-phase extraction

An analytical method was established for the simultaneous determination of seven nitrogen-containing phenyl ethers (2-anisidine, 3-anisidine, 4-anisidine, 2-nitroanisole, 3-nitroanisole, 4-nitroanisole, and 3,3'-dimethoxybenzidine) in cosmetics by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry in this work. The samples were extracted with ethyl acetate and purified with primary secondary amine during the dispersed solid-phase extraction. The analytes were separated by a DB-17MS column and detected in the electron ionization mode of mass spectrometry in the selected ions monitoring mode. The extraction solvent, purification adsorbents, and chromatographic column behavior were optimized. The results indicated that the seven analytes show good linear relationship (R-2 > 0.9965) in the concentrations of 5.0-5000 mu g/L. The quantitation limits of the method ranged from 19.0 to 84.8 mu g/kg. The recovery rates of seven analytes were in the range of 72.6-114% with the relative standard deviations of 1.1-7.5%. Real sample analyses showed that this accurate and precise method could be appropriate for simultaneous determination of seven nitrogen-containing phenyl ethers in cosmetics.