Determination of estrogens in environmental water samples with solid-phase extraction packed with bamboo charcoal prior to high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection

Abstract

In this paper, a simple method for the simultaneous preconcentration and sensitive determination of the estrogens hexestrol, diethylstilbestrol and dienestrol in environmental water samples has been developed, based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV). Bamboo charcoal, an inexpensive material, was investigated and used as a SPE adsorbent for the enrichment and determination of these estrogens. Important parameters affecting extraction efficiencies, including the eluant and its volume, flow rate, sample pH and volume were investigated and optimized in detail. Under the optimum conditions, the experimental data exhibited excellent linear relationships between peak areas and concentrations over the range 1–100 μg L⁻¹. The limits of detection and precision were in the range of 0.03–0.06 μg L⁻¹ and 4.46–8.65%, respectively. The proposed method has been successfully applied for the trace analysis of these estrogens in real-world environmental water samples with satisfactory results.