Optimization and development of analytical methods for the determination of new brominated flame retardants and polybrominated diphenyl ethers in sediments and suspended particulate matter

With more stringent legislation on brominated flame retardants, it is expected that increasing amounts of substitutes would replace polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs). Therefore, the development and optimization of analytical methodologies that allow their identification and quantification are of paramount relevance. This work describes the optimization of an analytical procedure to determine pentabromochlorocyclohexane, tetrabromo-o-chlorotoluene, 2,3,5,6-tetrabromo-p-xylene, tetrabromophthalic anhydride, 2,3,4,5,6-pentabromotoluene, tris(2,3-dibromopropyl)phosphate, decabromodiphenylethane and 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)ethane together with PBDEs in sediments and in suspended particulate matter. This method comprises a pressurized liquid extraction followed by three cleanup steps (gel permeation chromatography and solid phase extraction on Oasis™ HLB and on silica cartridges). Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, using electron capture negative chemical ionization, is used for the final analysis. The proposed method provides recoveries >85%. The method was applied to sediment and suspended particulate matter samples from different locations in the Western Scheldt estuary (the Netherlands). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the occurrence of the additive flame retardants 2,3,5,6-tetrabromo-p-xylene, 3,4,5,6-tetrabromo-o-chlorotoluene and 2,3,4,5,6-pentabromochlorocyclohexane is reported in the literature. The concentrations of these new flame retardants ranged from 0.05 to 0.30 μg/kg dry weight. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00216-011-4807-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.