High performance liquid chromatography coupling with photo-diode array and fluorescence detector for sensitive analysis of environmental endocrine disruptors (EDCs) in wastewater
- Received Date: 29/01/2016
- Accepted Date: 29/10/2015
- Available Online: 22/04/2017
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Key words:
- high performance liquid chromatography coupling with UV and fluorescence detector (HPLC-UV/FLD) /
- environmental endocrine disruptors (EDCs) /
- wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) /
- removal efficiency
Abstract: A sensitive method combining high-performance liquid chromatography and a photo-diode array and fluorescence detector was developed to quantitatively analyze five environmental endocrine disruptors (EDCs): estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), ethinyl estradiol (EE2), estriol (E3), and bisphenol A (BPA). The LOD of the five EDCs ranged from 4.30 μg·L-1 to 9.54 μg·L-1 and the LOQ ranged from 12.90 μg·L-1 to 28.62 μg·L-1. The intra- and interday precision were lower than 6.86% and 9.47%, respectively. The recovery of all compounds varied from 62.8% to 96.0%. This method can meet the requirements of trace analysis. Wastewater samples collected from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) were tested according to this method. The results indicated that the total concentrations of five EDCs were 3 073.1 ng·L-1 in the influent of the WWTP. Among the five EDCs, the content of E3 was highest, accounting for 40.1% of total EDCs. Throughout the wastewater treatment process, different treatment units exhibited different removal efficiencies for the EDCs. The biological treatment stage appeared to be necessary for the effective removal of EDCs. The removal efficiencies of EDCs ranged from 73.6% to 96.6% in the biological treatment units. The final sedimentation and disinfection for EDC removal were minor.