Abstract:

An ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method has been developed to identify and determine 11 industrial antioxidants in the aqueous simulants. A ProElut PLS SPE column was used for the enrichment, and an ACQUITY UPLC^TM BEH C₁₈ UPLC column (100 mm×2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) was used for separation by the gradient elution with pure water and acetonitrile as the mobile phases. The MS/MS detection was performed with an electrospray ionization (ESI) source in negative mode. The external standard method was used for quantitation in the present study. The linear ranges of the 11 analytes were from 5.0 to 100 μg/L. The coefficients of correlation were greater than 0.995. The recoveries of blank aqueous simulants fortified with the 11 analytes at the levels of 5.0, 10.0 and 20.0 μg/L were 61.4% to 109.4% with the relative standard deviations varied from 3.9% to 18.2% (n=6). The LODs and LOQs of the 11 analytes in aqueous simulants were 0.2-1.0 μg/L and 0.5-3.0 μg/L, respectively. This method is highly sensitive and accurate, and can be applied to the determination of the 11 trace industrial antioxidants in the aqueous simulants.

Key words: antioxidants, aqueous simulants, packing material, solid phase extraction (SPE), ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS)