Surfactant-assisted temperature-controlled solidification ionic liquid dispersion liquid–liquid microextraction was used for pre-enrichment and determination of traces of five phthalates in bottled water

A novel and efficient method of surfactant-assisted temperature-controlled solidification ionic liquid dispersion liquid–liquid microextraction (SA-TCS-IL-DLLME) has been developed for the preconcentration and determination of trace five phthalate esters in bottled water. The analysis was completed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC). In this study, hydrophobic low-density solid quaternary phosphonate ionic liquid ([P 44412 ] BF 4 ) was used as extractant while surfactant Tergitol TMN-6 was employed as dispersant. The dispersion of the extractant in the sample solution was promoted by water bath and vortex. At the same time, the temperature was controlled to transform the extractant from liquid to solid. Then, the separation of the extractant and the sample solution was achieved. Incidentally, extraction of the analyte was also finished. Important parameters which affected SA-TCS-IL-DLLME efficiency, such as the type and volume of extractant and dispersant, the amount of salt, the vortex time and pH value were investigated and optimized by single factor experiments. Under these optimized conditions, the method exhibited linearity ranges of 0.01–1.0 ng mL −1 with correlation coefficients between 0.9994 and 0.9998. The method’s intra-day ( n  = 6) and inter-day ( n  = 6) precision levels were maintained at ≤ 3.37 %, which was considered to be within acceptable limits. The computed detection and quantification limits were 16.54–24.60 and 54.91–82.04 ng mL −1 , respectively. Above all, this optimized method was effectively employed to extract five phthalate esters from bottled water with recoveries ranging from 94.83 % to 98.72 %. It can be used for rapid analysis and detection of phthalate esters in bottled water samples.