Potential of membrane-assisted solvent extraction for the determination of phosphoric acid triesters in wastewater samples by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A membrane-assisted solvent extraction (MASE) method is presented for the extraction of several non-ionic organophosphorus chemicals from wastewaters samples followed by LC–MS/MS determination. The method was developed for a variety of chlorinated phosphates (trichloroethyl, tichloropropyl) and non-chlorinated phosphates (triphenyl, tributyl) used as flame retardants and for plasticizers such as triethylhexyl and tris-butoxyethyl phosphate. Parameters such as extracting solvent, sample volume and ionic strength, extraction temperature and time were optimized. The final method provides good quantification limits (1–25 ng L−1) and linearity (R2 > 0.9978). Method precision was also good at high concentrations (5% mean RSD at the 500 ng L−1 level) but decreased at lower concentrations (20% mean RSD at the 20 ng L−1 level). MASE yields lower matrix effects than SPE in a successive LC–MS/MS analysis of these compounds, avoiding the need for standard addition for quantification. When applied to wastewater samples comparable results were obtained using either MASE with internal standard calibration or SPE with standard addition.