Simultaneous Determination of 10 Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in Environmental Waters by SPE-HPLC

A method of solid-phase extraction (SPE) combined with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for simultaneous determination of 10 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in environmental waters. The water samples with pH of 5 were purified by SPE on Poly-Sery HLB column and eluted with 6 mL of methanol. The elution was separated using Agilent Eclipse XDB-C18 as stationary phase and a mixture of water and acetonitrile as mobile phase for gradient elution. UV-detection at 224 nm was recorded. The linear relationship between the peak area and the mass concentration of 10 PPCPs were in the range of 0.5-20 mg·L-1, with detection limits in the range of 6.0-54.6 μg·L-1 and lower limits of determination (10S/N) in the range of 20.1-182.1 μg·L-1. Tests for recovery were made by adding standard samples to running water and surface water, giving values of recovery of 71.2%-108% and 56.7%-97.6%, respectively. The method was applied to assess the raw water and treated water of a sewage treatment plant.