Determination of Migration of Six Phthalate Esters in Plastic Toys by GC-MS/MS Coupled with Solid-Phase Extraction Using Cucurbit[n]urils as Adsorbent

This paper presents a method for the determination of migration of six phthalate esters in plastic toys based on gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) coupled with solid phase extraction using cucurbiturils (CB6-8) as adsorbent.

On the base of self-made migration device, toy samples were migrated for 10 min to 24 h in simulated saliva at 37 °C. The analytes were adsorbed by cucurbiturils SPE cartridges, eluted with ethyl acetate, then determined by GC-MS/MS and quantified by external standard method. The eluting solvents as well as the type and amount of the extraction materials were carefully optimized, then the reusability of the SPE cartridges was investigated. The limits of quantification (LOQs) ranged from 2.5 µg/L to 12.5 µg/L. Average recoveries of target analytes (spiked at three concentration levels) were in the range of 82.7% to 94.4%. Intraday repeatability and interday repeatability of the method varied from 2.3% to 6.6% and from 5.6% to 10.8%, respectively.

The proposed method was finally used to explore the migration behavior of phthalate esters in commercial plastic toys.