Abstract:

A method for the determination of 7 elements in children’s makeup by inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry （ICP-MS/MS） was established. The sample was destroyed by a digestion acid system of nitric acid-hydrofluoric acid and digested by a super microwave digestion method. ICP-MS/MS was used to simultaneously determine the contents of 7 elements in children’s cosmetics, including boron （B）, titanium （Ti）, germanium （Ge）, molybdenum （Mo）, tin （Sn）, antimony （Sb）, and tellurium （Te）. Rhodium （Rh） was selected as the internal standard and an internal standard method was used for quantitative analysis. Methodological studies were conducted using cream-based, powder-based and lipstick-based cosmetic as matrices. The results show that 7 elements have good linear relationship within their respective mass concentration ranges, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.996 7. At the two spiked levels, the average recoveries in three matrices are 81.1%-104.6%, 84.0%-116.0%, and 80.8%-113.1%, respectively, and the average relative standard deviations are 2.2%-7.5%, 0.5%-7.1%, and 0.8%-7.3%, respectively. This method uses a digestion acid system of nitric acid-hydrofluoric acid and a super microwave digestion method for sample pretreatment. And ICP-MS/MS technology is applied to determine the contents of elements in children’s cosmetics, solving the problem of element detection in different types of samples, especially those with complex composition and large matrix interference. It provides new ideas for sample pretreatment and element analysis of various cosmetics, filling the gap of 7 elements detection methods that have not yet been established in the existing legal standards.

Key words: ICP-MS/MS, super microwave digestion, hydrofluoric acid, children’s makeup, elemental analysis