Novel computer-assisted separation prediction strategy for online-enrichment-HPLC-FLD in simultaneous monitoring of bisphenols in children's water bottles

An on-line enrichment-liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection (LC-FD) method was developed for simultaneous determination of nine bisphenols (BPs). In this process, we predicted the separation based on an inhouse developed software allowing for calculating both retention time (t(R)) and half-peak width (W-1/2) of the solute by mobile phase fraction (phi) under gradient conditions. The proposed strategy was applied to separation prediction of BPs with high accuracy. Under the optimized conditions, good linearity was obtained with the correlation coefficients (R-2) ranging from 0.998 to 1.000. The recoveries in spiked samples were 91.3-110.7% with the infra-day and inter-day relative standard deviation ranging 0.4-9.6% and 0.5-10.2%, respectively. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.13-66.7 ng L-1 and 0.40-200 ng L-1. The developed approach was used to monitor the nine BPs in 28 children's water bottles. The developed method provides an effective way for monitoring bisphenols in other similar matrix.