Determination of Phthalate Esters in Soils by High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Ultrasonic Extraction

Phthalate esters (PAEs) are plasticizers, primarily used commercially to soften vinyl. 6 phthalate esters of DMP, DEP, DBP, DEHP, DOP and BBP which were listed in "priority monitoring contaminations" by the EPA of the United States in soils were extracted by ultrasonic extraction, purified by clean-up column, and then determined by HPLC. The experimental conditions were optimized, such as the ratio of extraction solvent, extraction time and extraction solvents. The recoveries ranged from 94.1% to 108.2%, and the RSD(n=7)ranged from 0.70% to 2.42%. The method provides the advantages of simple operation, high efficiency for samples pretreatment, it only requires 10 min to analyze 6 phthalate esters by HPLC, and is suitable for the determination of phthalate esters in a large number of soils.