Determination of endocrine disrupting aromatic compounds in water and sediment by using an essential oil distillator

A GC/MS method has been developed for endocrine disrupting aromatic compounds in water and sediment. The target compounds were benzophenone, 4-nitrotoluene, styrene dimmers (i.e. 2, 4-diphenyl-1-butene, cis-1, 2-diphenylcyclobutane, trans-1, 2-diphenylcyclobutane and 1, 3-diphenylpropane) and styrene trimmers (i.e 1a-phenyl-4a-(1'-phenylethyl)tetralin, 1a-phenyl-4e-(1'-phenylethyl)tetralin, 1e-phenyl-4a-(1'-phenylethyl) tetralin, le-phenyl-4e-(1'-phenylethyl)tetralin and 2, 4, 6-triphenyl-1-hexene) together with 2-nitrotoluene and 3-nitrotoluene. A water sample of 350 ml or a sediment sample of 20 g with 350 ml of purified water in a 500 ml flask was added to 0.2 μg of surrogate compounds (benzophenone-d10, 1, 2-diphenylethane-d14 and nitrobenzene-d5) and 5 ml of hexane. The flask was connected to an improved essential oil distillator and the mixture was distilled for 90 min. The hexane extract was condensed to 1 ml and fractionated by column chromatography using a silica-gel cartridge; the target compounds and the surrogate compounds were eluted from the column using 4 ml of acetone-hexane (20 : 80, v/v) after a fraction with 4 ml of hexane. The eluate was condensed to 1 ml and then added with internal standards for GC/MS determination. The recoveries of the target compounds were 88 to 111% for water samples and 80 to 113 % for sediment samples. The minimum detectable concentrations were 0.005 to 0.01 mg l-1 in water and 0.3 to 0.5 mg g-1 in sediment.