Development of an extraction method based on new porous organogel materials coupled with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for the rapid quantification of bisphenol A in urine.

ABSTRACT

A new method based on the use of porous organogel materials in combination with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) was assessed for the quantification of trace contaminants in complex matrices. As a demonstration of the use of these new materials, the contaminant chosen as a model was bisphenol A (BPA) and its extraction was investigated in urine. Organogel materials consist of an organic solvent immobilized by an organogelator. The composition of the organogel materials was optimized in terms of extraction efficiency and compatibility with LC-MS-MS. Porosity was introduced into the organogel by means of the particulate leaching method using sugar crystals. This new absorbing material is simple to use; the extraction method is reduced to a few steps. The originality of the method lies in the complete dissolution of the material for analysis by LC-MS-MS. The matrix effect of the organogel components was studied and was found to be minimal in atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization (APCI) compared to electrospray ionization (ESI) in negative mode. The influence of matrix components on the extraction was investigated by working with different media (acidified water, synthetic urine, horse urine and human urine). The partition coefficient was not affected within the margin of error (±0.1). After optimization, bisphenol A recoveries from urine samples reached 80%. The actual concentration factor was 10. The relative standard deviation (RSD, n=6) for the extraction and determination of BPA in horse urine spiked at 10ngmL(-1) was 9%. Tests with spiked human urine showed that the extraction performances were the same as with the solutions tested previously. The use of porous organogel allowed a fast, simple, sensitive, robust, green method to be developed for the determination of trace contaminants in complex matrices.