Objectives To establish a method for the determination of 25 semivolatile organic compounds in drinking water by micro-extraction gaschromatography-mass spectrometry.

Methods Dipping the solid phase micro-extraction fiber of an automated solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) instrument into standard solution or sample to extract target compounds. The parameters for SPME instrument, including the selection of fibre type, extraction temperature, extraction time, stir speed, desorbing temperature and the time, were optimized. Under selected conditions, samples were injected and separated by gas chromatography, qualified by full scan and quantified by the peak area with external standard.

Results The linear ranges of the method was (0.5~5.0) μg/L, the correlation coefficient was greater than 0.99. The detection limits of the method was in the range of (0.002~0.44) μg/L, the recovery rates was in the range of 70.3%~119.0%, and the relative standard deviation was in the range of 4.0%~13.4%.

Conclusions This method was simple, rapid, accurate and sensitive and was suitable for detecting 25 semivolatile organic compounds in drinking water.