Single-step extraction and cleanup of bisphenol A in soft drinks by hemimicellar magnetic solid phase extraction prior to liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

Hemimicelles of tetradecanoate chemisorbed onto magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are here proposed as a sorbent for the single-step extraction and cleanup of bisphenol A (BPA) in soft drinks. The purpose of this work was to develop a simple, rapid and low-cost sample treatment suitable to assess the human exposure to BPA from this type of high consumption food. The nanoparticles were easily coated by mixing commercially available magnetite of 20-30 nm mean particle diameter with tetradecanoate at 85°C for 30 min. The extraction/cleanup procedure involved stirring the samples (3 mL) with 200mg of tetradecanoate-coated MNPs for 20 min, isolating the sorbent with a Nd-Fe-B magnet and eluting BPA with methanol. The extraction efficiency was not influenced by salt concentrations up to 1M and pH values over the range 4-9. No cleanup of the extracts was needed, and the method proved matrix-independent. The extracts were analyzed by liquid chromatography, electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Quantitation was performed by internal standard calibration using BPA-(13)C12. The limit of quantitation obtained for the method, 0.03 ng mL(-1), was below the usual range of concentrations reported for BPA in soft drinks (0.1-3.4 ng mL(-1)). The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of BPA in different samples acquired from various supermarkets in southern Spain; the concentrations found ranged from 0.066 to 1.08 ng mL(-1). Recoveries from samples spiked with 0.33 ng mL(-1) of BPA ranged from 91% to 105% with relative standard deviations from 3% to 8%.