Determination of 4-tert-octylphenol, 4-nonylphenol and bisphenol A in surface waters from the Haihe River in Tianjin by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry with selected ion monitoring

The estrogenic pollutants 4-tert-octylphenol (OP), 4-nonylphenol (NP) and bisphenol A (BPA) were determined in surface water samples from the Haihe River, Tianjin, China. The analytes were extracted and concentrated from 300 ml acidified water samples by liquid–liquid extractions using dichloromethane, derivatized with trifluoroacetic anhydride, and quantified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) with selected ion monitoring (SIM). Among the samples collected from 14 sampling sites, only one sample was found to have a relatively high concentration of BPA (8.30 μg l−1) and NP (0.55 μg l−1). The concentrations of OP, NP and BPA in the other samples were in the range of 18.0–20.2, 106–296 and 19.1–106 ng l−1, respectively. Recoveries for OP, NP and BPA in the spiked water samples were all over 80%.