An ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method for the analyses of phenol derivatives from waters

In this study, a new procedure, based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) and analysis by Ultrahigh Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry method (UPLC-MS/MS), has been developed for the simultaneous, multianalyte determination of 15 selected phenols in water. SPE was carried out on LiChrolut RP-18 and Oasis HLB cartridges by percolating 500 mL water samples. The analytical methods allowed the separation of the 15 phenols in less than 8 minutes, with a recovery higher than 70%, and a quantification limit between 3 - 5 ng/L. The developed UPLC-MS/MS method showed high precision, as it was confirmed by the low values of relative standard deviation (RSD) for water samples spiked with 10 and 100 ng/L analytes. In the optimized method, LOQ higher than 5 ng/L, satisfactory precision (relative standard deviations < 20%) and accuracies (recovery percentages between 70 and 95%) were obtained for most investigated compounds. Keywords: Phenol derivatives, UPLC-MS/MS, SPE