Abstract:

An effective method for the determination of tributyl phosphate （tbp）, tris （2-chloroethyl） phosphate （tcep）, tris （1-chloro-2-propyl） phosphate （tcpp） and tris （2, 3-dichloropropyl） phosphate （tdcpp） in children's cosmetics was established based on ultrasonic assisted solvent extraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The conditions of extractant solvent, ultrasonic time, eluent type, eluent dosage, solid phase extraction column and chromatographic conditions were optimized. The optimal conditions were as follows: extraction solvent: acetonitrile; purification column: Florisil; extraction time: 20 min; eluent: acetonitrile. The results show that under the optimized conditions, the mass concentrations of TCPP and TBP are in the range of 0.002-20 mg/L and the mass concentrations of TDCPP and TCEP are in the range of 0.004-30 mg/L, which have a good linear relationship with their corresponding peak areas, and the correlation coefficient R² is greater than 0.998. The contents of four organic phosphates in domestic and imported children's cosmetics are determined by this method. The recoveries of four organic phosphate flame retardants in blank matrix at three different addition levels （500, 2 500 and 5 000 ng/g） are varied from 101.7% to 119.0% with the relative standard deviations of 2.5%-8.4%. The method is simple, sensitive and accurate, and can be used for the simultaneous determination of four organic phosphate flame retardants in children's cosmetics.

Key words: children's cosmetics, organic phosphate flame retardants, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, determination