Determination of Alkylphenols and Alkylphenol Mono- and Diethoxylates in Sewage Sludge by High Speed Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry Application

A routine method is described for quantitative determination of 4-nonylphenol (NP), 4-nonylphenol monoethoxylate (NP1EO) and 4-nonylphenol diethoxylate (NP2EO) in sludge samples. A Soxtec extraction procedure was used to enrich target compounds from the solid matrix. Quantitative determinations were performed by high speed gas chromatography/mass spectrometry using a short apolar fused silica column. Derivitization allows NP1EO and NP2EO to be analyzed by gas chromatography. The relative standard deviation was close to 5% for the analysis of 10 different sludges analyzed seven times each. Recoveries were determined for a sludge reference material and were higher than 90%. The experimental limits of quantification were 2, 5, and 5 μg/g of dry matter (μg/g DM), respectively, for NP, NP1EO, and NP2EO. Determination of Alkylphenols and Alkylphenol Monoand Diethoxylates in Sewage Sludge by High Speed Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry Application Good agreement was observed between results obtained with this method and those obtained by our previous method, which used normal-phase liquid chromatography with an aminosilica column. This method was applied to different kinds of sludge collected in France and showed the persistence of these contaminants.