The rivers, lakes, and the seas around the world have been contaminated by
phthalates, owing to their mass production and application in the world. Due to
concerns about the impact on human health, there have been numerous reports on the
detection methods of phthalates in water in the last decade. In this chapter, we will
summarize the analytical methods of phthalates in different water matrices, with
emphasis on the sample treatment techniques, the separation, and detection methods.
15.2 The Sample Treatment Methods
Phthalates are present at very low concentrations in water samples except for some
wastewater samples, so the development of sample treatment methods with high
enrichment factor is indispensable. Sample treatment procedure includes extraction,
cleanup, and concentration steps. Liquid–liquid extraction is a classical and commonly used extraction and preconcentration technique for organic analytes, because
it has reliable accuracy and satisfactory precision. But it is time-consuming, tedious,
and expensive, and the evaporation and redissolution procedures are usually required
to concentrate the analytes and enhance the sensitivity of the method. So liquid–
liquid extraction has been gradually replaced by other superior treatment methods,
such as solid-phase extraction, solid-phase microextraction, liquid-phase
microextraction, and their derivative techniques, such as dispersive liquid-phase
microextraction, solidified floating organic drop microextraction, hollow fiber
liquid-liquid microextraction, and magnetic solid phase extraction.
15.2.1 Liquid–Liquid Extraction
Liquid–liquid extraction is a traditional sample pretreatment method in which the
analytes are transferred from one solvent to another based on the different partition
coefficients of the analytes in two insoluble or partially soluble solvents. Liquid–
liquid extraction has been extensively applied to the extraction of analytes from
aqueous samples for its satisfactory reproducibility and accuracy, but it is timeconsuming, tedious, and needs a large amount of samples and organic solvents.
Some researchers used n-hexane or dichloromethane to extract phthalates from water
samples. For example, Qi et al. (2006) used dichloromethane as extractant to extract
eight phthalates in environmental water samples; after blown to dryness under
nitrogen flow, the residue was redissolved with organic solvent and finally analyzed
using gas chromatography. The method had the recovery rates of 73.5–114.6% and
the relative standard deviations of 0.47–1.83%.
15 Analytical Methods for Phthalates in Water Samples
547
phthalates, owing to their mass production and application in the world. Due to
concerns about the impact on human health, there have been numerous reports on the
detection methods of phthalates in water in the last decade. In this chapter, we will
summarize the analytical methods of phthalates in different water matrices, with
emphasis on the sample treatment techniques, the separation, and detection methods.
15.2 The Sample Treatment Methods
Phthalates are present at very low concentrations in water samples except for some
wastewater samples, so the development of sample treatment methods with high
enrichment factor is indispensable. Sample treatment procedure includes extraction,
cleanup, and concentration steps. Liquid–liquid extraction is a classical and commonly used extraction and preconcentration technique for organic analytes, because
it has reliable accuracy and satisfactory precision. But it is time-consuming, tedious,
and expensive, and the evaporation and redissolution procedures are usually required
to concentrate the analytes and enhance the sensitivity of the method. So liquid–
liquid extraction has been gradually replaced by other superior treatment methods,
such as solid-phase extraction, solid-phase microextraction, liquid-phase
microextraction, and their derivative techniques, such as dispersive liquid-phase
microextraction, solidified floating organic drop microextraction, hollow fiber
liquid-liquid microextraction, and magnetic solid phase extraction.
15.2.1 Liquid–Liquid Extraction
Liquid–liquid extraction is a traditional sample pretreatment method in which the
analytes are transferred from one solvent to another based on the different partition
coefficients of the analytes in two insoluble or partially soluble solvents. Liquid–
liquid extraction has been extensively applied to the extraction of analytes from
aqueous samples for its satisfactory reproducibility and accuracy, but it is timeconsuming, tedious, and needs a large amount of samples and organic solvents.
Some researchers used n-hexane or dichloromethane to extract phthalates from water
samples. For example, Qi et al. (2006) used dichloromethane as extractant to extract
eight phthalates in environmental water samples; after blown to dryness under
nitrogen flow, the residue was redissolved with organic solvent and finally analyzed
using gas chromatography. The method had the recovery rates of 73.5–114.6% and
the relative standard deviations of 0.47–1.83%.
15 Analytical Methods for Phthalates in Water Samples
547