Rapid Detection of Bisphenol A in Water Samples by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Based on Syringe Filters with Nylon Membrane Extraction

Syringe filters with nylon membrane extraction combined with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-UV detection was developed for analyzing bisphenol A (BPA) in water samples. The commercial syringe filters with hydrophilic nylon membranes represent a convenient and practical tool for the selective preconcentration of BPA in real water samples. The method required a small amount of sample (20.0mL) and minimal sample pretreatment. The factors influencing extraction efficiencies, such as sample volume, the kind and volume of eluted solvent, flow rate, and pH were optimized. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a C18 column using acetonitrile-water mobile phase and pumped isocratically at 1mL/min. The UV detector was set at 227nm. The chromatographic run time did not exceed 10min. Under the optimum conditions (sample volume 20mL; eluted solvent, acetonitrile, 1mL; pH 7), the linear range was 0.50-20.00 mu g/L with correlation coefficients of 0.9993-0.9999. Limit of Detection (LOD) were in the range of 0.16-0.21 mu g/L. Tap water and river water (at spiking levels of 5.00, 10.00, and 15.00 mu g/L) were successfully analyzed by the proposed method. The recoveries compared to previous methods were in the range of 91.7-99.3%. The results showed that syringe filters is a very simple, rapid, and efficient pretreatment tool for preconcentration of analytes.