Haiying Luo,Yanping Xian,Xindong Guo,Donghui Luo,Yuluan Wu,Yujing Lu,Bao Yang
A new technique was established to identify eight organophosphate esters (OPEs) in this work. It utilised dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction in combination with ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. The type and volume of extraction solvents, dispersion agent, and amount of NaCl were optimized. The target analytes were detected in the range of 1.0–200 µ g/L with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9982 to 0.9998, and the detection limits of the analytes were ranged from 0.02 to 0.07 µ g/L ( S / N = 3). The feasibility of this method was demonstrated by identifying OPEs in aqueous samples that exhibited spiked recoveries, which ranged between 48.7% and 58.3% for triethyl phosphate (TEP) as well as between 85.9% and 113% for the other OPEs. The precision was ranged from 3.2% to 9.3% ( n = 6), and the interprecision was ranged from 2.6% to 12.3% ( n = 5). Only 2 of the 12 selected samples were tested to be positive for OPEs, and the total concentrations of OPEs in them were 1.1 and 1.6 µ g/L, respectively. This method was confirmed to be simple, fast, and accurate for identifying OPEs in aqueous samples.
Plastic waste has caused severe environmental problems. Some additives in plastics, like organophosphates, enter the environment with plastic waste, causing significant harm to plants and creatures. However, the primary method of recycling phosphorus-containing plastic, especially polycarbonate and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (PC/ABS), is a mechanical method, which not only does not effectively separate plastics and organophosphates but also tends to cause polymer degradation during recycling. In order to overcome these problems, we proposed an efficient and sustainable approach to recycle of phosphorus-containing plastic. In this method, N, N -dimethylcyclohexylamine (DMCHA), a switchable hydrophilicity solvent (SHS), was used to react with and extract organophosphates in plastic, achieving the goal of complete separation of plastic and organophosphates. PC/ABS can be recovered by precipitation. Dissolved organophosphates can also be easily recovered due to the switching characteristics of SHS. Both of recovered materials were of high purity and were close to virgin materials. This technique is an easy and efficient approach to separate plastic and organophosphates, which has excellent application prospects in recycling phosphorus-containing plastic.