Determination of bisphenol A in water by isotope dilution headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry without derivatization.

The original solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers use an epoxy resin adhesive that releases bisphenol A (BPA) during thermal desorption of the fiber. This adversely affects the method detection limit and accuracy when these products are used for the determination of BPA. In this work, 5 new metal alloy SPME fibers that do not use epoxy resins were compared for the extraction of BPA in water. The performance of the optimum SPME fiber with 60 microm carbowax-polyethylene glycol coating for the headspace SPME of BPA in water was investigated systematically under different extraction conditions. Salt was found to increase the partitioning of BPA from water into the headspace until saturation was reached. Partitioning of BPA from water into the headspace also increased at higher extraction temperatures, as did longer extraction times. However, extraction of BPA from water onto the SPME fiber was not improved for solutions adjusted to pH 2 compared to the unadjusted neutral solutions. The new BPA method showed good linearity over the concentration range of 2.5 to 40 microg/L [correlation coefficient (r2) = 0.995] . The method detection limit for BPA was 0.5 microg/L, while the instrument detection limit was as low as 0.05 microg/L. Good repeatability was observed for BPA at levels of 5 and 20 microg/L with relative standard deviation values < 10%. The automated headspace SPME method developed in this work was used to investigate migration of BPA from polycarbonate bottles into water, and levels of BPA in water ranged from 1.7 to 4.1 microg/L.