Determination of 4-tert-octylphenol, 4-nonylphenol and bisphenol A in surface waters from the Haihe River in Tianjin by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with selected ion monitoring.

The estrogenic pollutants 4-tert-octylphenol (OP), 4-nonylphenol (NP) and bisphenol A (BPA) were determined in surface water samples from the Haihe River, Tianjin, China. The analytes were extracted and concentrated from 300 ml acidified water samples by liquid-liquid extractions using dichloromethane, derivatized with trifluoroacetic anhydride, and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with selected ion monitoring (SIM). Among the samples collected from 14 sampling sites, only one sample was found to have a relatively high concentration of BPA (8.30 microgl(-1)) and NP (0.55 microgl(-1)). The concentrations of OP, NP and BPA in the other samples were in the range of 18.0-20.2, 106-296 and 19.1-106 ngl(-1), respectively. Recoveries for OP, NP and BPA in the spiked water samples were all over 80%.