A sensitive and efficient procedure for the high throughput determination of banned aromatic amines in textiles and leather products aided by advanced sample composition.

A highly sensitive procedure for the efficient routine control of aromatic amines derived from banned azo dyes in textile and leather products was developed and optimized. The procedure involves the extraction and reduction of azo dyes from solid samples following the sample preparation protocols outlined in EN 14362-1:2003, EN 14362-2:2003, and ISO/TS 17234:2003 standards, and cleanup and concentration of aromatic amines by solid-phase extraction, with Oasis HLB and ENVI-Carb sorbents in series. The elution was carried out with the cartridges connected in series, although the positions of the cartridges were reversed and the ENVI-Carb cartridge was placed in the backflush mode. Extracted and concentrated aromatic amines were separated and analyzed by liquid chromatography (LC)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS). The chromatographic separation was optimized by means of computer-assisted method development with a special chemometric tool (the PREGA LC-MS module), developed specifically for LC-MS systems. This system enables the unattended optimization of separations after a few priming isocratic and gradient experiments. The optimized separation program enables accurate detection and measurement of all the 23 aromatic amines considered, at very low quantification limits and without any notable matrix effects. Strategic sample composition was applied as an efficient means of reducing the costs and work involved in the control of aromatic amines in finished textile and leather products. The benefits of strategic sample composition are demonstrated by means of a case study of 20 sample specimens.

Low part per trillion determination of reactive alkanethiols in wastewater by in situ derivatization-solid-phase microextraction followed by GC/MS.

A solid-phase microextraction (SPME) procedure for the simultaneous determination of volatile alkanethiols (i.e., methane-, ethane-, propanethiol) and dihydrogen sulfide in aqueous samples as stable thioethers followed by GC/MS determination was developed. Accordingly, N-ethylmaleimide as derivatization reagent in the aqueous phase was used for the first time, improving the analyte stability and method sensitivity in comparison to the determination of free forms. Thus, pH of the aqueous medium, reaction time, and derivatization reagent concentration have been evaluated, and the main parameters affecting the SPME process (i.e., coating selection, extraction mode and time profile, extraction and desorption temperatures) optimized. At the selected derivatization and extraction conditions, the proposed method provided no matrix effect either in the derivatization reaction or in the microextraction steps. RSD values were lower than 11% and LODs from 0.74 to 5.2 ng L(-1). The developed procedure was successfully applied to different water and wastewater samples, where dihydrogen sulfide and some of the target alkanethiols were identified at low-microgram per liter concentrations.

Development of a procedure for the determination of perfluorocarboxylic acids in sediments by pressurised fluid extraction, headspace solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric determination.

A procedure for the determination of perfluorocarboxylic acids (i.e. PFC7-10A) in sediment by pressurized fluid extraction (PFE), derivatization, headspace solid-phase microextraction and GC-MS determination in the negative ion chemical ionisation mode was developed. The PFE extraction variables such as solvent composition, number and time per extraction cycle, and extraction temperature were optimised. In the optimum extraction conditions, recoveries exceeding 95% with a limit of detection and RSDs of 0.5-0.8 ng g(-1) and 15.5-16.8%, respectively, were obtained. The developed analytical procedure was applied to harbour sediments where PFC8A and PFC10A were detected for the first time at low ppb concentrations (i.e. 8-11 ng g(-1).