Sustainable polypyrrole-based magnetic-microextraction of phthalates from jellies and apple-based beverages prior to tandem mass spectrometry analysis

Synthesised polypyrrole-coated Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles have been successfully characterised and applied as sorbent for the magnetic-micro-dispersive solid-phase extraction of eleven phthalic acid esters from jelly and apple-based beverage matrices widely consumed by the population and, especially, by children. Sorbent was synthesised through chemical coprecipitation and subsequently characterised by different techniques. The influence of several parameters on the extraction efficiency was exhaustively evaluated using a step-by-step strategy. The separation and quantification of the selected phthalates were performed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. The validation of the methodology was carried out for jellies and apple-based beverages, employing dihexyl phthalate-3,4,5,6-d(4) as the surrogate standard. Relative recovery values were in the range 70-114% for both matrices and relative standard deviations below 20% were obtained. The limits of quantification of the method were found in the range 0.147-0.416 mu g/L. Feasibility of the developed methodology was proved by the analysis of commercialised jelly and apple-based beverage products. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Synthesised polypyrrole-coated Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles were successfully characterised and used for the extraction of phthalic acid esters from jelly and apple-based beverages. The methodology was validated and proved to be feasible for commercial products.