Determination Of 15 Phthalate Esters In Plastic Products By Ultra Performance Convergence Chromatography

Ultra performance convergence chromatography (UPC2) is cost effective, sustainable, and it uses green technology that lowers the use of organic solvents. Based on these advantages, a method was developed for the determination of 15 phthalate esters in plas. tic products by UPC2. The samples were extracted with hexane and then quantitatively analyzed by UPC2. The separation of the 15 phthalate esters was achieved on an ACQUITY UPC2 HSS C18 SB column (150 mmx3 mm, 1.8 mu m) by a gradient elution with supercritical CO2 and acetonitrile as mobile phases. External standard method was used for the quantitative determination and the calibration curves showed good linearity in the concentration range of 0.5-10mg/L for the phthalate esters with correlation coefficients higher than 0.9960. The limits of quantification of the phthalate esters were 1.0-2.2 mg/kg. Their spiked recoveries were 78.1%-122.3%, and the relative standard deviation range was from 2.95% to 8.26%. The method can be successfully applied for the determination of the phthalate esters in plastic products.