Determination of bisphenol A in water by micro liquid-liquid extraction followed by silylation and gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis

A method for the determination of bisphenol A according to the European Union guideline, which establishes a limit of 0.1 ng/mL for organic pollutants in water, is proposed. The method involves a micro liquid-liquid extraction using dichloromethane followed by a silylation step. Identification and quantitation are performed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, using an HP-5MS column. The retention time is 7.02 min. Quantitation is carried out using single-ion monitoring (SIM) at m/z73, 357, and 372. A clean-up is not necessary using SIM mode. Deuterated anthracene (2H10-anthracene) is used as an internal standard. The method is applied to the determination of bisphenol A at very low concentration levels (10.0-250.0 ng/L) in different types of natural water samples. The detection limit obtained is 0.4 ng/L. Recovery efficiencies are close to 100% in all cases.