Synthesis of 81Br-Labeled Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Their Characterization Using GC(EI)MS and GC(ICP)MS

A mixture of different (81)Br-labeled polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) was prepared and characterized for its future use as spike for the isotope dilution analysis of PBDEs. The synthesis was carried out by direct bromination of diphenyl ether using (81)Br enriched Br(2) obtained after aqueous oxidation of bromide with potassium peroxymonosulfate and extraction into dichloromethane. The number of bromine atoms introduced in the diphenyl ether molecule depended on the molar ratio between bromine and diphenyl ether. The final mixture prepared contained a mixture of tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexabrominated PBDEs with a larger concentration of the tetrabrominated congener BDE-47. The isotopic composition of bromine in the resulting PBDEs mixture was determined by GC(ICP)MS and resulted in a 99.53% enrichment of the isotope 81 of bromine. The concentration of three of the PBDE congeners (28, 47, and 99) in the mixture was determined by reverse isotope dilution analysis using a certified, natural abundance, PBDEs mixture and both GC(ICP)MS and GC(EI)MS. For this purpose, the fragmentation and isotope distribution patterns of the different PBDE cogeners in the positive electron ionization source were studied in detail both for natural abundance and labeled compounds. A procedure based on isotope pattern deconvolution was developed which allowed the direct determination of the concentration of the labeled PBDEs in the spike mixture by GC(EI)MS. Finally, the GC(EI)MS isotope pattern deconvolution procedure was applied for the determination of natural abundance congeners 28, 47, and 99 in spiked waters at ng L(-1) levels. Detection limits below 0.5 ng L(-1) could be obtained for all compounds using only 100 mL of sample and liquid-liquid extraction with isooctane.