Simultaneous Determination of the Residual Contents of 15 Glycol Ethers in Leather and Leather Products by Gas Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry Coupled with Microwave-assisted Extaction

An effective method was established to determine simultaneously the residual contents of 15 glycol ethers in leather and leather products. Residual glycol ethers in leather and leather products were microwave-assisted extracted at 85℃, using methanol as the extraction solvent. Then the extracts were purified by solid phase extraction column, followed by the analysis of gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry technique. The concentration of each analyte was calibrated by external standard method. The spiked average recoveries varied from 81.30% to 92.52% under three different spiked levels while the relative standard deviation(RSD) changed from 2.91% to 6.93%. The limits of quantification(LOQ) changed from 5 g/kg to 20 g/kg at the condition of signal to noise(S/N) of 10. The proposed method was simple, rapid, accurate and sensitive. It could satisfy completely the technicaldemands of the determination of residual glycol ethers in leather and leather products. The proposed method was applied in the determination of residual glycol ethers in commercially available leather and leather products and glycol ethers of different content levels were detected in some samples.