Determination of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Drinking Water by GC-MS

Objective To establish a method for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in drinking water by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

Methods Domestic drinking water samples were treated by a C₁₈ solid-phase extraction column and eluted with dichloromethane and ethyl acetate, and then the final eluate was concentrated with nitrogen and analyzed.

Results A total of 18 polychlorinated biphenyls showed a correlation coefficient of ≥ 0.99 within the range of (0.01-0.40)μg/L. The detection limit of the method was (0.000 3-0.001 7)μg/L, and the limit of quantification cation was (0.001 2-0.006 8)μg/L. The recovery rate ranged from 85.1%-117% and the relative standard deviation ranged from 1.08%-9.51%.

Conclusion The GC-MS method has good applicability, accuracy, stability, and reliability and can meet the detection limits for polychlorinated biphenyls in drinking water, and therefore, it is suitable for simultaneous determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in drinking water.