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Simultaneous determination of 24 personal care products in fish muscle and liver tissues using QuEChERS extraction coupled with ultra pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometer analyses

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Abstract

A sensitive and selective quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) extraction combined with dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) cleanup method was developed to simultaneously extract a wide range of personal care products (16 biocides, 4 synthetic musks, and 4 benzotriazoles) in fish muscle and liver tissues. In order to get satisfactory recoveries, different extraction parameters were optimized, including extraction salts and d-SPE materials, extraction solvents and acetic acid contents in organic phase, and the ratios of solvent and water. Ultra pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were used to analyze the target compounds in the extracts. Among the 24 personal care products, the recoveries in the range of 70–120 % were obtained for 20, 19, and 12 analytes in fish muscle at the spiking concentrations of 10, 5, and 1 ng/g ww, respectively, and for 13, 12, and 11 analytes in liver at the spiking concentrations of 40, 20, and 4 ng/g ww, respectively. Method quantification limits (MQLs) of all analytes were 0.02–2.12 ng/g ww for fish muscle and 0.22–12.2 ng/g ww for fish liver tissues. The method was successfully applied to wild fish samples collected from Dongjiang River, south China. Twenty-one and 17 of the analytes were found in fish muscle and liver samples, respectively, in at least one site of the river with the concentrations between below MQLs and 119 ng/g ww, respectively.

Achieved satisfactory recoveries, high precision, and low method quantification limits (MQLs) for PCPs in wild fish tissues by QuEChERS procedure optimization combined with UPLC-MS/MS and GC-MS analyses

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC No. 41303077, 41473105, and 41101462).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 511 Kehua Street, Wushan, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510640, China

    Li Yao, Jian-Liang Zhao, You-Sheng Liu, Yuan-Yuan Yang, Wang-Rong Liu & Guang-Guo Ying

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Correspondence to Jian-Liang Zhao.

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In this study, wild fish collection and ethical care were performed in strict accordance with the recommendations of Animal Care Quality Assurance in China.

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Yao, L., Zhao, JL., Liu, YS. et al. Simultaneous determination of 24 personal care products in fish muscle and liver tissues using QuEChERS extraction coupled with ultra pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometer analyses. Anal Bioanal Chem 408, 8177–8193 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9924-y

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